On the map it looks like a pearl clinging to the Indian subcontinent. Or maybe like a tear?

No othe country was given more beautiful names. In ancient times it was dubbed the pond of red lotus flowers, from the land of the hyacinths and rubies, of Lankadiva, the Island of the Gods, of Taprobane, the copper- colored land.

Even Sri Lanka, the new old country name, has a poetic meaning: 'bright beautiful country' is the islands name again, that was known, during the few centuries European colonial rule, under the name of Ceylon.

Time and again this term was compared, like in legends of old times, with the paradies.