The word "serendipity," the unexpected discovery of pleasant things, is derived from the ancient land of Serendip, which is what country today?

The original story " The Three Princes of Serendip" who found things by happy chance was Persian but the country whence they came was, if memory serves,Ceylon (or sri Lanka;I forget which version is being used this week )
Horace Walpole coined the word serendipity in reference to the fortunate finders.

Gosh, Fred -- you're slipping. That took you a whole 12 minutes! Thanks for your answer.

If I remember correctly, Arthur C. Clarke used the name Serendip in referring to his adopted home of sri Lanks.

(a few minutes later) - Yep. I was right.
THE VIEW FROM SERENDIP (Paperback) by Arthur C. Clarke

The origin of "serendipity" is also discussed in a delightful (but unfortunately out-of-print) collection of essays called Retrospectroscope: Insights into Medical Discovery by Julius Comroe, Jr. (Von Gehr, 1977). The author affirms FP's attribution of the coinage by Walpole in 1754, based on his fairytale as titled above. Comroe states that Serendip is indeed the former name of Ceylon [now Sri Lanka], and that the Oxford English Dictionary defines serendipity as "the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries."

He adds, "some wag's more recent definition is that serendipity is looking for a needle in a haystack but coming up with the farmer's daughter."