Hambantota

Hambantota lies on the dry southern coast of Sri Lanka, where natural salt pans provided a valuable resource for the island’s interior. The coastal settlement served the country of Ruhuna and later developed as a port under British rule. In the early nineteenth century the British sent convicts to collect salt at the Maha Levaya. After an attack by Kandyan forces in 1803, they began a round Martello gun tower on a nearby hill; work was under way in 1805.