Colombo Pettah Market Walk and Food Trail
Pettah takes its name from the Tamil pettai – the settlement outside the fort walls – and it has been Colombo’s trading floor since Dutch times. This walk goes deep rather than wide. The candy-striped Red Mosque, Jami Ul-Alfar, completed in 1909 by a self-taught builder working from pictures of Indo-Saracenic buildings; Wolvendaal Church of 1749, named ‘wolf’s dale’ because the Dutch mistook the local jackals for wolves; Kayman’s Gate, remembered for the crocodiles once kept in Beira Lake; Sea Street’s gold dealers and Hindu kovils; and the Dutch Period Museum on Prince Street. Between landmarks come the tastings – short eats, king coconut and a cup of tea at a Dam Street tea merchant whose building still keeps its original Avery weighing scale.