Sri Lanka, the beautiful island nation in Asia, has been making rapid leaps in the tourism circuits of the region, and this is ample reason for many people to be interested in knowing more about the country. Sri Lanka is located in the Indian Ocean and lies to the southwest of the Bay of Bengal. For those who understand technical jargon, the location can be more precisely specified in terms of latitudes and longitudes; Sri Lanka is between latitudes 5° and 10°N, and longitudes 79° and 82°E. It lies at a distance of around 880 km to the north of the equator. The country is pretty small in geographic size, measuring around 445 km in length and 225 km in breadth.
A more indicative description of the location of Sri Lanka can be presented in terms of its relative location to India. Merely 50 km away from India, Sri Lanka is separated from the Indian subcontinent by Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar. The Hindu mythological epic Ramayana mentions that there was an artificial land bridge created between India and Sri Lanka by Lord Rama. Some historians endorse this piece of mythology, and there are reports of the aforementioned bridge being actually used for travel up to 1480 A.D. After that, however, cyclones led to the depression of the channel and reduced it to a chain of limestone shoals.
Sri Lanka’s geographical location has a lot to dictate in terms of the weather conditions prevalent in the country. Sri Lanka’s climate is tropical and warm. The warmth of the climate is moderated to a certain extent by the ocean winds. However, this means that the content of moisture in the winds is also considerable. The ambient temperatures in the country range from about 17 °C (62.6 °F) to 33 °C (91.4 °F). The relatively higher temperatures are characteristics of the low altitude areas, whereas the central highlands witness lower temperatures.
The fact that Sri Lanka is located in the middle of the Indian Ocean means that the monsoon winds rising from the waters of the ocean, along with the Bay of Bengal have a major influence on the rainfall patterns observed in the country. The monthly rainfall levels in the central highland windward slopes hit the 2500 mm mark pretty regularly. On the contrary, the leeward slopes do not enjoy any considerable rainfall over the year.