Sri Lanka

A country located in the Indian Ocean, nicknamed “the teardrop of India” due to its teardrop shape and close proximity to India, with a strait that is where their maritime border is demarcated between them. It has a rich history, of both colonialism and is one of the oldest civilizations, but not like Ethiopia kind of old. As far as I know, the Portuguese, British, and according to Geography Now (Ran by Paul Barbato, who I know does extensive research for his YouTube videos), was even attempted to be colonized by the French. Sri Lanka’s capital is Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, but is said that the de facto capital is Colombo, where Jayawarden Kotte is located inside. As of the time of writing, the country was recently hit hard with I believe an ongoing economic crisis, which caused inflation to skyrocket and made everyday life much harder, and this took quite a toll on its tourism sector/industry, which was doing great pre-crisis due to the natural beauty and historical value and landmarks that Sri Lanka had to offer. Once again currently at this time of writing, the population is 22.16 million. It’s also worth mentioning Sri Lanka is a literal goldmine, although I’m not sure if they have gold, but numerous mines throughout the country, especially the city of Ratnapura, translating to “city of gems”, minerals such as sapphires, graphite, various minerals contained in what is called ‘mineral sand’, rubies, topaz, garnet sand, calcite, and so on.