From the archive record
Panoramic view of Kollam city as seen from top of a building in Kollam, Kerala. Kollam or Quilon, is an old seaport and city on the Laccadive Sea coast in Kerala, India on Ashtamudi Lake. Kollam, once called Desinganadu, has had a high commercial reputation since the days of the Phoenicians and Romans. Fed by the Chinese trade, it was mentioned by Ibn Battuta in the 14th century as one of the five Indian ports he had seen in the course of his travels during twenty-four years. Desinganadu's rulers were used to exchange the embassies with Chinese rulers and there was flourishing Chinese settlement at Kollam. Merchant Sulaiman of Siraf in Persia (9th Century) found Kollam to be the only port in India, touched by the huge Chinese junks, on his way from Carton of Persian Gulf. Marco Polo, the g