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Where is Sri Lanka located on the world map?

Sri Lanka is a small island country sitting in South Asia. It’s in the Indian Ocean, just a bit southeast of the Indian subcontinent. It all lies in the Northern Hemisphere, sort of between 5° and 10° North latitude, and yeah, it’s slightly above the equator too.


Geographically, it’s at a strategic crossroads of major maritime shipping lanes, so it matters a lot for travel by sea. Sri Lanka is separated from the southeastern coast of India by the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar, and that stretch of water basically acts like a natural divider. The landscape is pretty varied; you can see flat coastal plains, then later a central highland zone climbs up to more than 2,500 metres. Because it’s placed in the Indian Ocean, the weather follows a tropical monsoon pattern. The island gets rain from both the Southwest and Northeast monsoons, at different times of the year, and this in turn shapes farming calendars and the best moments for visitors, depending on the season.


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