What is there to see inside Jaffna Fort?

Inside the star-shaped Jaffna Fort, visitors can wander through the wide coral-stone ramparts, the wet moats, and those eerie, bony skeletal ruins where Dutch-era churches, prisons, and administrative buildings once stood. It was originally built by the Portuguese in 1618; later, it was expanded by the Dutch, so now it remains the second-largest existing fort in Sri Lanka.

Since the fort became a place for long, heavy sieges during the Sri Lankan Civil War, a large part of the interior structures was damaged, leaving the whole area with a stark, raw sense of history rather than that neat, polished preservation. If you walk along the perimeter walls at sunset, you get phenomenal sweeping views across the Jaffna lagoon and out over the northern city around it.