Beypore
—  city  —
Beypore Location of Beypore in Kerala and India
Coordinates	11°11′N 75°49′E / 11.18°N 75.82°E / 11.18; 75.82Coordinates: 11°11′N 75°49′E / 11.18°N 75.82°E / 11.18; 75.82
Country	India
State	Kerala
District(s)	Kozhikode
Population	66,883 (2001[update])
Time zone	IST (UTC+05:30)
Area • Elevation	• 1 metre (3.3 ft)

Beypore or Beypur is an ancient port town and part of Calicut municipal corporation in Kozhikode district in the state of Kerala, India. The place was formerly known as Vaypura / Vadaparappanad. Tippu Sultan named the town “Sultan Pattanam”. There is a marina and a beautiful beach. Beypore port is one of the oldest ports in Kerala from where trading was done to the Middle East. Beypore is also famous for building wooden ships, called Dhows or Urus in Malayalam language. These ships are usually bought by Arab merchants for trading, fishing and now used as tourist ships. According to Captain Iwata, founder member of the Association of Sumerian ships in Japan, Sumerian ships might have been built in Beypore. There is evidence to prove that Beypore had direct trade links with Mesopotamia and was a prominent link on the maritime silk route.

History[link]

Beypore was thronged first by Romans and afterwards by Chinese, Syrians, Arabs and in recent centuries by Europeans for trade. Beypore has long history of being a centre for shipbuilding since the first century AD, and it was further expanded under the East India Company during the early nineteenth century. The Indian Ocean trade started from ancient times and strengthened during the medieval times. While in the old days Malabar directly traded with the Greeks and Romans, it concentrated on exchanges with the Middle Eastern ports in the medieval times. This exchange of goods resulted also in transfer of people from their abodes. While it is mentioned that Malabari’s were found along African ports and even Egypt’s, it was mostly Arabs who migrated to the Malabar coasts, mainly to administer, control and conduct the trade with their brethren in Yemen, Basra and Egyptian ports. Beypore was virtually free port with only an export import duty imposed by the ruling Zamorins. The intermediaries between the Arabs and the Nairs were the Moplah’s (themselves a community started by the intermingling Arab men and local women from ancient times). Also the south east Malay ports sent ships to Malabar for the cloth from Kerala, until British cloth took its place later in the 19th century. It was also a stop over for Hajj pilgrims from south east Asia. The Arab settlers in Malabar even had African slaves during that period.

Beypore Port[link]

Beypore port is a Sub-port of Calicut port and is situated approximately 10 km south of Calicut. It is an estuarine port, where Beypore river discharges into the Arabian Sea. Beypore is 180 km North of Cochin and 391 km away from Trivandrum. Beypore port is the second biggest port in Kerala after Cochin and currently handles about 100,000 tones of cargo and 7500 passengers per annum. The nearest competing ports are Kochi and Mangalore. Now the port has a depth of about 4 meters alongside wharf and approach channel and it is proposed to be developed in stages and utilities like storage shed, cranes and tugs are already installed. Beypore port is one of the oldest ports in Kerala from where trading was done to the Middle East.

Geography[link]

Beypore is located at 11°11′N 75°49′E / 11.18°N 75.82°E / 11.18; 75.82.^[1] It has an average elevation of 1 metres (3 feet).

Travel information[link]

By road : Beypore is well connected by road and is just 11 km from Calicut.

By air : Calicut airport, is at Karipur and is 23 km from Calicut city centre

By rail : Kozhikode station 10 km apart and Feroke 4 km apart

Demographics[link]

As of 2001 India census,"Census of India 2001: Data from the 2001 Census, including cities, villages and towns (Provisional)". Census Commission of India. Archived from the original on 2004-06-16. http://web.archive.org/web/20040616075334/http://www.censusindia.net/results/town.php?stad=A&state5=999. Retrieved 2008-11-01.  Beypore had a population of 66,883. Males constitute 49% of the population and females 51%. Beypore has an average literacy rate of 81%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; with 50% of the males and 50% of females literate. 13% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Notable residents[link]

Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (21 January 1908 – 5 July 1994)^[2] was a humanist, freedom fighter, novelist and short story writer.He is fondly remembered as the Beypore Sultan.

Places of attraction[link]

Pulimuttu- Pulimuttu is the local name of the 1 km long bridge made of stone stretching in to sea. It is made by piling stones like a pathway to sea.

StonePier Beypore

Beypore light house is situated at the south bank of chaliyar.

The other attraction of Beypore was the house of Palakal Kunhimoideen (former ISRO staff). It was situated near Beypore Higher Secondary School.

References[link]

1. ^ Falling Rain Genomics, Inc - Beypore
2. ^ Basheer's Janmadhinam