Beypore

                                   Beypore or Beypur is an ancient port town and part of Kozhikode 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.

                 Beypore is located about 10 km south of Kozhikode town at the mouth of the Chaliyar River. Historically, it has a special place as being one of the prominent ports and fishing harbours, and was also an important trade and maritime centre during the days of the early Arab and Chinese travelers and later the Europeans. Soon after gaining prominence as a port and trade centre, Beypore slowly began to flourish as a centre for shipbuilding, since ships were 0in great demand merchants from Western Asia. The shipbuilding yard at Beypore is famous for its traditional construction of the Uru or the Arabian trading vessel. This tradition of shipbuilding is nearly 1,500 years old, and the craftsmanship of the workers here is exceptional.

                   Traditionally, Arabs constitute the major chunk of buyers. They place orders with their specifications and needs. Unlike modern day shipbuilding involving the development of blueprint and machinery to facilitate manufacturing of ships, here, at Beypore everything is conceived in the minds of the shipwrights, who as a team execute the highly intricate woodwork to perfection. It is an amazing aspect if one is to observe the manner in which the Uru takes shape with minimum sophistication in production. The entire team observes certain work ethics, of which discipline is the foremost. A visit to this historic place is a must in order to have a close look at some of the deft fingers and alert minds, measuring and fixing different parts of the ship to perfection.

               Nearby attractions in Beypore include the fishing harbour, hardly a kilometer from the shipbuilding yard and Kadalundi Bird Sanctuary, which is about 7 km from Beypore. The Kadalundi estuary is considered as a birdwatchers, paradise, due to the variety of local as well as migratory bird life. Migratory birds flock here in large numbers during February-March.
The sanctuary is spread over a group of islands in a scenic area surrounded by hillocks where the Kadalundi River flows into the Arabian Sea. The place is locally known as Kadalundi Nagaram.



                 

Beypore port is a Sub-port of Kozhikode port and is situated approximately 10 km south of Kozhikode. 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.

Nearest railway station: About 10 km from Kozhikode town.
Nearest airport: Karipur International Airport, about 23 km from Kozhikode town.