Peraliya is a small coastal village situated in

Hikkaduwa Hikkaduwa is a small town on the south coast of Sri Lanka located in the Southern Province, about north-west of Galle and south of Colombo. Etymology The name Hikkaduwa is thought to have been derived from the two words ''Sip Kaduwa'', with ...

Galle District Galle ( si, ගාල්ල දිස්ත්‍රික්කය ''gālla distrikkaya''; ta, காலி மாவட்டம் ''Kāli māvattam'') is a district in Southern Province, Sri Lanka. It is one of 25 districts of Sri Lanka, th ...

in the Southern Province of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. The village could be reached from

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

in three hours; it is located around Temple Road off the 95 km mark of Galle Road. The village was devastated by the tsunami at around 9.26 am on December 26, 2004 following the

Indian Ocean earthquake An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Sum ...

. An express train from Colombo towards Galle swept away killing at least 1,700 passengers. The village had lost 500 of its people, and 200 have gone missing.

References

See also