Ancient India had a flourishing maritime trade that made it an economic superpower and culture 2000 years ago. In the early centuries before Christ is believed that India being that has 33% of global GDP (the Roman Empire, 21% and China 26%). What makes it so rich was the flourishing maritime trade with the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs and the Chinese.
In South India was the most important port of Muziris , an abbreviation for Muccheri Pattanam, the city of pepper.
Archaeological excavations began in 2004 have confirmed the location of the port of Muziris: 30 chilomentri north of Cochin. As a result of the excavations was born on Muziris Heritage Project, to enhance the cultural heritage of central Kerala.A project that aims to give visibility to the human experience of this land, through museums and monuments, but also crafts, art and crafts, now at risk of extinction. Nowadays Kerala offer the world of travelers not only as a paradise of beaches, forests and Ayurvedic treatments, but also as a cultural destination, to re-establish the connections of the past. The area covered by the project extends between the districts of Ernakulam and Triussur, including two Vitta, six villages and a number of rivers and canals which, in the finished project will be the ways in which to explore the area (directly from the airport!)
The Muziris of which he wrote Pliny, the huge international market in which poured a substantial proportion of gold golden Romans, mentioned in the Mahabharata, and the Sangam poets, all that remains is the name. Yet the place has the charm of history, in spite of the natural changes that made the port impractical in 1341, creating the natural bay of Cochin to which sailed the ships of European maritime powers in more recent times.