Colour news
Pigments and dyesArcheologists discover hidden tomb untouched for 600 years that's 'like a treasure chest'FestivalsShrichakra Rangoli: How ancient India turned geometry, mathematics and cosmic thought into a sacred art formFestivalsPhotos of the weekColour of the yearEvery 2027 Color of the Year We Know So FarFashion and designThe 8 Colors Fashion Girls are Building Their Fall Wardrobes AroundFestivalsIn India, Holi welcomes spring with a Festival of ColorsColour of the yearTom’s Watch Bar Partners With Dodgers Fan Club Pantone 294Craft and textilesMore clues to Maya blueCraft and textilesDesigners Say These 6 Unexpected Paint Colors Can Make Any Room Feel Instantly Warmer and More InvitingCraft and textilesMacron and UYBA Volley present the new 2026/27 Game SetPigments and dyesArcheologists discover hidden tomb untouched for 600 years that's 'like a treasure chest'FestivalsShrichakra Rangoli: How ancient India turned geometry, mathematics and cosmic thought into a sacred art formFestivalsPhotos of the weekColour of the yearEvery 2027 Color of the Year We Know So FarFashion and designThe 8 Colors Fashion Girls are Building Their Fall Wardrobes AroundFestivalsIn India, Holi welcomes spring with a Festival of ColorsColour of the yearTom’s Watch Bar Partners With Dodgers Fan Club Pantone 294Craft and textilesMore clues to Maya blueCraft and textilesDesigners Say These 6 Unexpected Paint Colors Can Make Any Room Feel Instantly Warmer and More InvitingCraft and textilesMacron and UYBA Volley present the new 2026/27 Game Set
Rang

City of the Red Mosque

Colombo

In the crowded Pettah market a mosque striped and checked in red and white stands out on every side.

Colombo city skyline
Photo: T Chamika, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why Colombo is candy-stripe red

Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka and its main port. Its most colourful building is the Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque in the Pettah bazaar district, completed in 1909 and widely called the Red Mosque. Every surface is patterned in red and white brick: stripes, checks, spirals and jagged bands, with domes shaped like pomegranates. It is said that sailors approaching the harbour used it as a landmark. Around it the market streets are dense with cloth, fruit and signboards. The city's three-wheeled taxis, called tuk-tuks, come in red, green and blue. Along the seafront at Galle Face Green, kites of every colour fly in the evening wind.

Candy-stripe red#B5272DStripe white#F5F2ECTuk-tuk green#3E9B4FIndian Ocean blue#3B7EA1

Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.

Colours tied to Colombo

RedA primary colour seen in light, pigment, and tradition worldwide
About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Colombo" on Wikipedia. If you know Colombo and we have it wrong, tell us.

More colour cities

All colour cities
🇱🇰 The white fort townGalleA walled colonial town on Sri Lanka's south coast, with white churches, a white lighthouse and ochre villas.🇮🇳 The open-air gallery of RajasthanShekhawatiMerchant mansions in the towns of north Rajasthan are covered inside and out with painted murals.🇮🇳 Land of mirror work and white desertKutchEmbroidery, tie-dye and block print in deep red and indigo, set against the white salt of the Rann.🇮🇳 The silk cityKanchipuramA temple town in Tamil Nadu whose heavy silk saris pair strong body colours with contrasting gold borders.🇮🇳 Red earth and a golden sphereAurovilleAn experimental township on red earth near Pondicherry, centred on the golden globe of the Matrimandir.🇮🇳 Akbar's red sandstone cityFatehpur SikriA Mughal capital built in one red stone in the 1570s and left by the court only a few years later.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

The weekly palette

Every Monday: seven colours you may not know, what the world is wearing this week, and one idea about colour.