From the archives: Natural Swimming Pool, Colombo, Ceylon, 1959

Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), August 1959. Breaking swells from the Indian Ocean supply this cleverly-designed pool with clean sea water. In the 1950's, Ceylon's economy was thriving and Colombo's harbor facilities were inadequate for the amount of shipping trying to use the port. As a result, freighters often rode at anchor in the roadstead for days or weeks.

My dad took this photograph on Kodachrome film with a Leica IIIC camera and 5cm ƒ/2.0 Summitar lens (still in use). I do not know the exact date and am not sure where the Kodachrome was processed then. I doubt the family sent it back to USA, but possibly Kodak had laboratories in Bangkok or Tokyo.

UPDATE January 2026: This is the Governor's Bath, formerly on Chaithya Road in Colombo. It has been removed or possibly buried as part of Colombo's major port expansion and landfill.