Inaguration Of Muziris Heritage ProJect By Precident Pranab Mukharjee

The Muziris Heritage Project utilizes at a global level the possibilities of a region, which lost its glory centuries ago. This region forms a part of the heritage tourism circuit between North Parur and Kodungalloor in Kerala. Muziris is an ancient port town in little Kerala still holds a kind of beauty that is filled with history and culture. And through the project, we get ready to travel back in time for centuries. What this old port town dishes out to us along with history and culture, are the remnants of its past glory, still observable in features like place-names, architecture, diet etc.

When history and tradition, which slept in the bosom of the earth for two thousand years like a treasure are finally unearthed, the natives of the place themselves become the beneficiaries. The market places bounded by backwaters and canals start moving backwards towards the architectural beauties of the past. Muziris welcomes you to the cape of trade culture, left behind by its ancestors from around the world, to the waves of Azhikode where Christianity first entered India, to the Cheraman mosque, which gave out the first Muslim call for prayers, to the Bharani festival at the Kodungalloor Bhagavathy temple, to the original culture of the Jewish synagogue, to the village where handlooms spin thinks of heritage, to the Palium palace and to the old waterways that led one to Muziris.

Project Muziris

To reinstate the historical and cultural significance of the legendary port of Muziris, the Government of Kerala has initiated the Muziris Heritage Project. Today, the region is dotted with numerous monuments of a bygone era that conjure up a vast and vivid past. The entire project is designed to involve and integrate the local community in all intended developmental initiatives.

The Muziris Heritage Site (MHS) stretches across from the municipality of North Paravur in Ernakulam district to that of Kodungalloor in Thrissur district. It includes four panchayats in Ernakulam district viz. Chennamangalam, Chittatukara, Vadakekkara, Pallippuram, and three panchayats in Thrissur district viz. Eriyad, Mathilakam and Sreenarayanapuram.

Project highlights

The largest heritage conservation project in India
The first Green Project of the Government of Kerala
Involvement of multiple Government Departments and convergence
More than 25 museums to appreciate the Muziris Heritage
A research and academic institution to support the project
Major improvements in infrastructure
Integration with local communities through native resource persons for data collection, survey etc

let us travel down the ladder of time unfolding the riddles of the past in the gleam of the golden sands of history unearthed. Muziris welcomes you to the cape of trade culture left behind by our ancestors from around the world. Reputed to be the ancient world’s greatest trading centre in the East this legendary seaport traded in everything from spices to precious stones with the Greeks, Romans and the rest of the world. The Muziris Heritage Project intends to conserve and to showcase the culture of 3000 years or more for posterity. In Muziris, which was the doorway to India for varied cultures and races: Buddhists, Arabs, Chinese, Jews, Romans, Portuguese, Dutch and even the British history no longer slumbers but rather lends itself bare to the curious minds.