page_title: Jaffna
section_title: Suburbs of Jaffna
hierarchical_section_title: Jaffna / Suburbs of Jaffna
caption_attribution_description: Jaffna Public Library
context_page_description: Jaffna is the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a peninsula of the same name. With a population of 88,138 in 2012, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th most populous city. Jaffna is approximately six miles from Kandarodai which served as an emporium in the Jaffna peninsula from classical antiquity. Jaffna's suburb Nallur, served as the capital of the four-century-long medieval Jaffna Kingdom.
  Prior to the Sri Lankan Civil War, it was Sri Lanka's second most populous city after Colombo. The 1980s insurgent uprising led to extensive damage, expulsion of part of the population, and military occupation. Since the end of civil war in 2009, refugees and internally displaced people began returning to homes, while government and private sector reconstruction started taking place. Historically, Jaffna has been a contested city. It was made into a colonial port town during the Portuguese occupation of the Jaffna peninsula in 1619 who lost it to the Dutch, only to lose it to the British in 1796. During the civil war, the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam occupied Jaffna in 1986.
context_section_description: Ariyalai
  Chundikuli
  Chunnakam
  Colombuthurai
  Gurunagar
  Kaithadi
  Kokkuvil
  Kondavil
  Kopay
  Nallur
  Navatkuli
  Passaiyoor
  Urumpirai
  Vannarpannai
caption: Jaffna Public Library. Construction began in 1933.
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