If not true they may well approximate truth, for the phonetic genesis of “Cinnamon” is traced to Hebrew. The Greek geographer Cosmas Indicopluestas of Alexandria, mentions Galle as an important stop for Ships and Sailors of the Levant as early 6th century of the first millennium. Galle in the Sri Lanka Map has attracted Persians, Arabs, Greeks and Romans from the west and Indians and Malays from Gujarat and Malacca. Galle enters modern history in 1505 when the first Portuguese ship of Lorenzo de Almeida was driven to its inviting bay.
The bay is sheltered by a rocky peninsula which according local lore was a lump of Himalayan soil which the Monkey God Hanuman dropped when he brought medicinal plants and herbs to treat the wounded in a battle in the Hindu epic Ramayana. In a seminal book “Ceylon Under the British” a scholar records in impishly imaginative words “… If the vagaries of the winds brought the Portuguese to Sri Lanka, the lure of Cinnamon kept them there.” So they did, until evicted by the Dutch in 1640. Galle you discover today, will relate that story from every nook and corner as you walk its streets and corridors’ of well preserved structures that have withstood both time and the price of progress.
Today it is a protected world heritage site. It is has again regained its past grandeur simply by staying still within its imposing granite walls of the fort conceding some space to accommodate some world class Luxury Hotels in Sri Lanka.
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