Marayur or Marayoor is a town in Devikulam taluk of Idukki district in Kerala, India. It is located 42 kilometers north of Munnar on SH 17 connecting Munnar with Udumalpet, Tamil Nadu. Marayur is situated at around 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) above mean sea level and is the only place in Kerala that has natural sandalwood forests. Ancient dolmens and rock paintings in Marayur date back to the Stone Age. In 1991 Marayur had a population of 9,590.
Marayur claims to be a part of a Stone Age civilization that is as old as 10,000 B.C. It is also home to a later period of large-scale dolmen-building. People migrated from Tamil Nadu to this area when the Madurai king Bangaru Thirumala Nayak was defeated by Chanda Saheb, in the eighteenth century CE. The migrants created five villages, being Kanthalloor, Keezhanthur, Karayur, Marayur and Kottakudi. These villages were called the “Anju nadu”, literally meaning “five lands”.
Sandalwood in Kerala is synonymous with Marayoor. The reason is simple – it is the only place in God’s Own Country that has a natural growth of Sandalwood Trees. Its legendary product is famous across the country and has competed on equal terms with other areas with larger pockets of Sandalwood Forests, especially in Southern India.
Today its caves (muniyaras) with murals and relics from the New Stone Age Civilisation, a gigantic Children’s Park and a Sandalwood Factory run by the Forest Department form the core of the attractions here. People also throng to visit the ancient Dolmenoid Cists
(Dolmenoids were burial chambers made of four stones placed on edges and covered by a fifth one called the cap stone) in Muniyara.
Getting there
Nearest railway station: Aluva, about 184 km and Angamali, about 149 km
Nearest airport: Cochin International Airport about 148 km
