About Hambantota

Situated along the south-eastern coastline, the traditional fishing village of Hambantota Sri Lanka was often frequented by merchants from the far-east owing to its natural harbor, making it the ideal stop-over en route to the western world. The vessels in which these merchants traveled were called ‘sampans’ and ‘thota’ means port. Therefore, the port in which the sampans anchor came to be popularly known as ‘Sampantota’, which latterly came to be known as ‘Hambantota’.

This city also popularly known for its mass production of salt, was primarily an agricultural city. Prior to the modernization of this city, the agriculture in the district was characterized by chena cultivation and paddy cultivation on non-irrigated land. However, Hambantota Sri Lanka is now developing rapidly and even boasts an International Cricket Stadium that was used for the first time to host the Cricket World Cup 2011. The first South-Asian Beach Festival too was held in this city.

Travel to Hambantota is now much easier than it used to be due to the Southern Express Highway from Colombo to Matara accounting for the major part of the distance.

Hambantota weather is generally rather dry and the month of August is the driest whereas November is usually a relatively wet month.