Kayal

Kayal was a port near the mouth of the Tamraparni River on the Gulf of Mannar. It succeeded the older harbour of Korkai as an outlet for the Pandya country and its celebrated pearl fisheries. Marco Polo described a wealthy port visited by ships from Arabia and the Persian Gulf, whose merchants brought horses to southern India. The movement of the shoreline and river deposits eventually left the old harbour farther from the sea, changing the fortunes of this once prominent trading place.