Galle has a very long history and is marked in the island of Sri Lanka in Ptolemy’s world map prepared around 125 – 150 AD. During that time Galle was a busy port. Foreign traders like Greeks, Arabs, Chinese etc have been visiting Galle for trade.

Some believe that word Galle is derived from the Dutch word ‘Gallus’ which means chicken. But some believe that there was a very large ‘Gaala’ of cattle here. Gaala in Sinhala means the place where cattle are herded together. So they believe Galle is a development from ‘Gaala� ��. It is from Galle harbor that Portuguese led by Lorenzo de Almeida first arrived in Sri Lanka. There arrival marked an important watershed in Sri Lanka’s history because it completely changed the course of Sri Lankan history. Their arrival however, was not a planned one. It was by mere chance they came here as there ship was caught in a storm and it is the winds that brought their ship to Galle.