Jaffna city and seaport, northern Sri Lanka, capital of Northern Province, on a peninsula. The city is the trading center for the surrounding region in which coconuts, rice, and tobacco are grown. The peninsula is practically an island, connected the rest of Sri Lanka by a narrow spit of land which houses the Chundikkulam bird sanctuary and a causeway known as Elephant Pass because elephants would once cross the shallow lagoon at this point.