Known until 1972 as Ceylon (,, or ), Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest across the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Strait, and the Maldives to the southwest.

The story is set in the fictional equatorial island country of Taprobane, which Clarke has described as " about ninety percent congruent with the island of Ceylon ( now Sri Lanka )", south of its real world location.

Switzerland has represented Israel's interests in numerous countries ( Hungary ( 1967 – 1989 ), Guinea ( 1967 – 1973 ), Ceylon / Sri Lanka ( 1970 – 1976 ), Madagascar ( 1973 – 1994 ), Liberia ( 1973 – 1983 ) and Ghana ( 1973 – 2002 )).

Ceylon celebrated its centenary in 2000 July and has a website with a lot of historical images of the place

It has also been found in Bermuda, Hawaii, the Solomons, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Australia, New Guinea, Ceylon, India, the Azores, and the Canary Islands.

It has grown from a group of seven Commonwealth nations-Australia, Britain, Canada, Ceylon, India, New Zealand and Pakistan-into an international organization of 26, including non-Commonwealth countries.

In other cases the title of Chief Justice is used, but the court has another name, e. g. the Supreme Court of Judicature in colonial ( British ) Ceylon, the Court of Appeals in Maryland.

Edward Harper has been dubbed ' the Father of Broadcasting in Ceylon ,' because of his pioneering efforts, his skill and his determination to succeed.

Miss Bud is Drood's fiancée who has also caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless, who comes from Ceylon with his twin sister, Helena.

Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC ( CBC ) is one of the leading commercial banks in Sri Lanka with 220 branches and more than 515 ATM's. The bank has a subsidiary in Bangladesh.

This mint stamp of the 1918 Russian revolution era is much less commonly found used. A mint high value 100 Rupee key type stamp of Ceylon valid for postage or revenue use and vulnerable to tampering to remove a fiscal cancel to make it appear to be a more valuable unused stamp. In philately, a mint stamp is a stamp which is in its original state of issue, is unused, has never been mounted and has full gum, if issued with gum.

Radio broadcaster Vernon Corea has been credited with having helped to spread baila music to the English-speaking world via English-language programmes aired on Radio Ceylon and BBC Radio London during the late 1960s and 1970s.

Radio Ceylon has produced some of the finest announcers of South Asia among them: Livy Wijemanne, Vernon Corea, Pearl Ondaatje, Tim Horshington, Greg Roskowski, Jimmy Bharucha, Mil Sansoni, Eardley Peiris, Shirley Perera, Bob Harvie, B. H. Abdul Hameed, Claude Selveratnam, Christopher Greet, Prosper Fernando, Tony de Costa, Ameen Sayani ( of Binaca Geetmala fame ), S. P. Mylvaganam ( the first Tamil Announcer on the Commercial Service ), Thevis Guruge, H. M. Gunasekera, A. W. Dharmapala, Karunaratne Abeysekera, Chitrananda Abeysekera, Kailayar Sellanainar Sivakumaran, Mervyn Jayasuriya, Vijaya Corea, Elmo Fernando, Eric Fernando, Nihal Bhareti Leon Belleth and V Sundharalingam.

Radio Ceylon also popularised the English songs of Indian popular musicians-they went on to score huge hits, among them Uma Pocha ( Bombay Meri Hai ), Usha Uthup who has the rare distinction of singing Sri Lankan baila songs with ease and the Anglo-Indian star, Ernest Ignatius ( who went on to be a success in Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's ' Bombay Dreams ' in London ) had a massive hit, I Married a Female Wrestler, on Radio Ceylon.

A portrait of Queen Elizabeth II wearing the tiara, designed by Arnold Machin, has appeared on many Commonwealth currencies, including those of Britain, Australia, Jamaica, Canada and Ceylon.

The choir of St Luke's Church has been featured on several Christmas and Easter radio programmes on Radio Ceylon and subsequently the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation.

Ceylon Tamil cuisine, bears similarities to Tamil Nadu cuisine but also has many unique vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes.

The Ceylon Workers ' Congress ( CWC ) is a political party in Sri Lanka that has traditionally represented Tamils working in the plantation sector of the economy ( Sri Lankan Tamils of Indian Origin ).

It was Templeton who described the extraordinary Giant Earthworm Megascole caeruleus from Ceylon which is between 20 and 40 inches long and has a thickness of nearly an inch or more.

Meanwhile a vigorous protest was handed down to the Ceylon Governor in Colombo by Muhammed Didi, the brother of Kakaage Don Goma, one of the late Sultan Nooraddeen's wives highlighting that the Law of Succession in the Maldive Islands which supported lineal primogeniture has been breached and that his great-nephew Muhammed Shamsuddeen ( then Kakaage Doshi Mannipulhu ) who was 14 and thus the eldest son of the late Sultan should be the legitimate heir to the throne.

In 1900, he moved to colonial Ceylon, and then in 1911 proceeded to Malaya, where he worked as a civil servant, independently developing an interest in the native peoples and writing papers and a book about their magical practices.

In October 1904 Woolf moved to Sri Lanka to become a cadet in the Ceylon Civil Service, in Jaffna and later Kandy, and by August 1908 was named an assistant government agent in the Southern Province, where he administered the District of Hambantota.

Fourteenth Army HQ now moved to Ceylon to plan operations to recapture Malaya and Singapore.

Then, following Chuichi Nagumo's Indian Ocean raid and raid on Ceylon in early 1942, the Fleet moved its operational base to Kilindini near Mombasa in Kenya, as their more forward fleet anchorages could not be adequately protected from Japanese attack.

After the war, the 1st battalion moved to Ceylon in 1857 and thence to India, returning home in 1870, whilst the 2nd battalion moved to Hong Kong, and saw action in the Second Opium War, fighting at the capture of the Taku Forts ( 1858 ) and Pekin ( 1860 ), and returning home in 1861.

The headquarters moved in April 1944 to Kandy in Ceylon.

Later he moved his business into the eating house at East Coast Road / Ceylon Road.

Another entrepreneur, H G Meakin, moved to India and bought the old Shimla and Solan Breweries from Edward Dyer and added more at Ranikhet, Dalhousie, Chakrata, Darjeeling, Kirkee and Nuwara Eliya ( Ceylon ).

He then was ordered to Hong Kong and three years later moved to Trincomalee on Ceylon ( now called Sri Lanka ).

He was born in Ceylon but moved to South London for his schooling, he lived at 27 Alleyn Park Road Dulwich, and attended Dulwich College between 1891 and 1897 where he excelled at sport, especially Cricket.

After a year-long study of Sanskrit, Tamil, Pāli, and Sinhalese he moved to Ceylon ( now Sri Lanka ) to become the Archaeological Commissioner of Ceylon, where he oversaw the excavation and preservation of monumental architecture and other archaeological sites.

It then moved to the East, being stationed in Ceylon, Hong Kong, Singapore, Peshawar and Multan before the outbreak of the Great War.

Victor supported Bellone and accompanied the flagship as she moved ahead to attack Ceylon and Astell.

In July 1940, two all-Dutch squadrons were formed with personnel and Fokker seaplanes from the Dutch naval air force: 320 Squadron and 321 Squadron ( which afterwards moved to Ceylon ).

William Digby moved to the Indian subcontinent in 1871 and worked as a sub-editor in the Ceylon Observer., and as the editor of The Madras Times in 1877.

From December 1944, the organisation's headquarters moved to Kandy in Ceylon, and cooperated closely with South East Asia Command which was also located there.

* Sri Lanka ( FIPS Pub 10-4 and obsolete NATO country code CE, from the former name, Ceylon )

In 1942 the British established an Advanced Flying Boat base at the East Point Plantation, staffed and equipped from the 205 and 240 Squadrons, then stationed on Ceylon.

Despite this reverse, under Ezana and Kaleb the kingdom was at its height, benefiting from a large trade, which extended as far as India and Ceylon, and were in constant communication with the Byzantine Empire.

Exploring his interest in weaponry, in 1907 he joined the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps, a local volunteer force composed of European tea and rubber planters intent on protecting their interests from foreign aggression or domestic insurrection.

Dutch forces first established independent bases in the East ( most significantly Batavia, the heavily fortified headquarters of the Dutch East India Company ) and then between 1640 and 1660 wrestled Malacca, Ceylon, some southern Indian ports, and the lucrative Japan trade from the Portuguese.

Their monopoly over the spice trade became complete after they drove the Portuguese from Malacca in 1641 and Ceylon in 1658.

However, the British expelled the Dutch from Ceylon in 1796 and included Maldives as a British protected area.

Nonetheless, Van der Stel secured the shipment of 95 more slaves from Madagascar, before being transferred to Ceylon.

The name stems from Serendip, an old name for Sri Lanka ( aka Ceylon ), from Arabic Sarandib, which was adopted from Tamil " Seren deevu " or originally from Sanskrit Suvarnadweepa or golden island ( some trace the etymology to Simhaladvipa which literally translates to " Dwelling-Place-of-Lions Island ").

The Indian merchants for centuries brought large quantities of cinnamon from Ceylon and the Far East to Somalia and Arabia.

The former names of the country " Serendib ", " Seylan " and " Ceylon " have derived from the old name " Sinhale ".

The early arrivals to come to New Zealand from what was then British Ceylon were a few prospectors attracted to the gold rushes.

* Ceylon between 1948 and 1972, and Sri Lanka from 1972 until 1978 when the constitution was remodelled into a Executive presidential system.

* 1796: British ejected Dutch from Ceylon.

* May 30, 1815 – The Arniston, an East Indiaman repatriating wounded troops to England from Ceylon, is wrecked near Waenhuiskrans, South Africa with the loss of 372 of the 378 people on board.

* May 30 – The Arniston, an East Indiaman repatriating wounded troops to England from Ceylon, is wrecked near Waenhuiskrans, South Africa with the loss of 372 of the 378 people on board.

* Portuguese traders are expelled from Ceylon by Dutch invaders.

Born in Colombo, Ceylon ( now Sri Lanka ) to British parents, he received his Bachelor's degree in Classics from the University of Oxford ( Merton College ) in 1956.

Clive Bell married Vanessa in 1907, and Leonard Woolf returned from the Ceylon Civil Service to marry Virginia in 1912.

Mondale was born in Ceylon, Minnesota, and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1951.

In 1640, the VOC obtained the port of Galle, Ceylon, from the Portuguese and broke the latter's monopoly of the cinnamon trade.