Tangalle Fort (; ) is a small Dutch fort located in the coastal town of

Tangalle Tangalle ( Sinhala තංගල්ල , ) (also known as Tangalla) is a large town in Hambantota District, Southern Province, Sri Lanka, governed by an Urban Council. It is one of the largest towns in southern province. It is located south of Co ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. The Dutch used Tangalle as an important anchorage on the southern coast of the island. Tangalle fort differs from most other forts constructed by the Dutch, in that the fort has no massive ramparts. The four main walls, which are high, enclose a space similar to a

rhombus In plane Euclidean geometry, a rhombus (: rhombi or rhombuses) is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. Another name is equilateral quadrilateral, since equilateral means that all of its sides are equal in length. The rhom ...

, in height, in opposite corners of the structure. The fort was significantly altered by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

in the middle of the 19th century when it was converted into a

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

. The British also used Tangalle as an anchorage. The fort is still being used as a prison by the Department of Prisons.

See also

References

Further reading