Sri Lanka: Jaffna – Jaffna Fort

Jaffna Fort is massive and its star-shaped layout can truly be appreciated only from the air. The original fort was built by the Portuguese in 1618 and then captured by the Dutch in 1658, who rebuilt and expanded it into a pentagonal structure with five bastions, a moat, and coral-limestone ramparts, making it the second-largest fort in Sri Lanka after Galle. The British took control in 1795, using it as a garrison until Sri Lanka’s independence in 1948. During the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009), the fort was one of the main points of conflict, controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels from 1985 to 1995 and heavily damaged during sieges.