Depending on your viewpoint, Sri Lanka's shape resembles either a pearl or a teardrop, cast adrift in the Indian Ocean. Yet there is also much to champion Sri Lanka as a pearl: Indians, Portuguese, Dutch and British have all left their marks in ancient architecture and palm-fringed beaches are never far away from mountainous greenery in this jewel of an island. Indeed, Marco Polo proclaimed that Sri Lanka was (or is) one of the best islands in the world. The country has 8 regions:

• Central
• North Central
• North Eastern
• North Western
• Sabaragamuwa
• Southern
• Uva
• Western