Beypore fort ... Takes us to the Silk Route of 2000 years back .. and the Uru ..

A Beypore Uru, sailboat, in the making .. courtesy The Hindu.

The traders from Persia came with pearls via land(since their merchandise was not of much bulk), purchased spices and other goods in Kerala and got made boats with wind sails and took their merchandise back via the sea route. I have visited the place in Beypore where these sail boats used to be made(they are called "Machuva" in malayalam). 

These boats are wonderful crafts made by tying together plates of wood; Coir is used to bind the pieces together. In recent times the craft picked up again when rich arabs started using these boats as a status symbol and started using them as yachts(of course by fitting them with motors). Then these craftsmen were bought en-mass and taken to Dubai and they started making the boats there. But now I heard the craftsmen have come back to Beypore. 

The place where these boats are made is a beautiful point; it is made at the estuary of Beypore puzha. There is a light house across on the opposite side(btw the opposite bank is called Chaliyar) . When the fresh water from the river pushes out to the sea we get to see the formation of a lot of silver crested waves way  out into the sea. (courtesy Rajesh KTS, CET86)

peopleofindia1868-1875photos.blogspot.in/2010/07/beypore-india-artist-north-marianne.html

A terrific blog by Purnima Ranganath of Bangalore taking us through the North of Kerala historical sites .. Special mention of Beypore ..

http://sunshinepurnima.blogspot.in/2011/12/spice-trail-of-yore.html

Another blog of Beypore by  malayali from Dubai . 

http://traveller.outlookindia.com/fulltravelogue.aspx?id=207

Another blog on Beypore ..  http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/887a2/

Another blog giving info on uru and boats from different parts of the world including Egypt, Babylon and Thor Heyerdahl's experiments..

http://pazhayathu.blogspot.in/2010/11/uru-big-boat-bepur-calicut.html

ge..