National Geographic World's Best Island Sri Lanka

The words mean "resplendent isle," and the natural charms of this pearshaped island in the Indian Ocean that nearly kisses the southeast tip of India are indeed splendid. • Peopled mostly by Sinhalese, the result of waves of IndoAryan emigration, the island is mostly flat, with gentle mountains in the south. • The Portuguese and the Dutch once waged proxy wars here; by 1802 the island was a British colony. • This century saw bloody civil war, as the Liberation Tigers, representing minority Tamils, fought the Sinhalese and their domination of politics and economics. • In 2009 the Tigers were vanquished. • Today peace prevails.