The National Museum of Colombo is housed in a building of the British colonial style which was completed in 1877. A lot of the subject matter I found here was reminiscent of that found in the Kabul Museum. My last visit there in Kabul was just before the opening of a large exhibit of Buddhist period artifacts. In Sri Lanka the Buddhist period never ended and the images and statues were never deliberately destroyed. The museum was not looted during the civil war. Quite a few more items made it through intact to the present day.
The ground floor of the National Museum is laid out by historical period and contains an impressive collection of materials from the Kingdoms of Anuradhapura through Kandy. Upstairs, items are arranged thematically and tend to be of later vintage. The upstairs collection includes the throne of the last King of Kandy.
The building and grounds themselves are very interesting photographically and I found several more trees there as subject matter. The National Museum is a good place to visit for the photographically or archeologically inclined.