Muziris project to be opened for tourists

Tourism in Kerala, which has so far targeted mainly beaches, forests and backwaters, will soon show-case the glory of the 3,000- year-old Muziris port. The Muziris Heritage Pro-ject, claimed to be the first of its kind in the country, when completed is expected to turn Muziris into a major destina-tion for cultural tourism, Chief Project Consultant Benny Kuriakose has said. Muziris, 27 km from here, was a port city that was among the earliest of its kind in the world. It is also unique as home to India's first church (Mar Thoma church), first mosque (Cheraman Ju-ma Masjid) and the oldest Eu-ropean monument (Portuguese fort). Situated on India's south-western coast, Muziris was a spice city where the traders of the world - Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Chinese - thronged to buy and sell a va-riety of wares, mainly spices and clothes. "It's been two years since we started the project and in another two to three months, it would be opened for tourists," Mr. Ku-riakose said. Nineteen de-partments and agencies were working for the project and many more coordinating. Major project The project, which in-cludes a Central aid of Rs.40 crore, "is a walk through 3,000 years of Kerala history. Buddhists, Arabs, Chinese, Jews, Romans, Portuguese, Dutch and British came here. Jews have left two syn-agogues. We are trying to link all these.., the existing Muzi-ris and the sites," he said. A series of 27 museums, spread over the heritage re-gion displaying maritime trade, lifestyle, barter system and handicrafts, were being planned and five would be opened next year, Mr. Kuria-kose said. Interactive museums are a major component of the pro-ject. Life and works of con-temporary men and women who made a difference to so-cial life in what was once Mu-skis would be the subject of some museums. Since Muziris is spread on the banks of the Periyar, ef-forts were on to deepen ca-
nals and construct jetties. People could come in cars, park it and would be taken around in boats. "This was a place where not even 100 tourists would come. But once the project opens up, authorities are hopeful many visitors would not miss this trip to history," Mr. Kuriakose said. He said the State govern-ment was planning to collab-orate with UNESCO on the project and a three-member delegation had visited Patta-nam, the project site, last week. The team also met Tou-rism Minister Kodiyeri Ba-lakrishnan, Finance Minister TN. Thomas Isaac and Culture Minister MA. Baby in Thiruvananthapuram and held discussions. "Since Muziris had links with many countries, we would like to seek the coor-dination of these countries with the help of UNESCO and also tiy to include Muziris as a World Heritage Site," Mr. Kuriakose said. Noting that there was al-ready a long queue on the In-dian list to be included as a World Heritage Site and only two were possible in a year, he said that was why the option of looking at an International Spice Route, with India tak-ing the lead, could be pro-posed.