God's Own Country
Along a sun-drenched coastline, to the extreme south west of the Indian peninsula, lies Kerala — beautiful and benign. Flanked by the Arabian Sea on the west and the mountains of the Western Ghats on the east, this land of Parasu Rama stretches north-south along a coastline of 580 km with a varying width of 35 to 120 km.
Cascading delicately down the hills to the golden coasts covered by verdant coconut groves, the topography and physical characteristics change distinctly from east to west. Located between north latitudes 8°18' and 12°48' and east longitudes 74°52' and 72°22', this land of eternal beauty encompasses 1.18 per cent of the country India.
The Western Ghats, bordering the eastern boundary of the State, form an almost continuous mountain wall, except near Palakkad where there is a natural mountain pass known as the Palakkad Gap. The average elevation of the Ghats is about 1,500 meters above sea level, occasionally soaring to peaks of 2,000 to 2,500 m.
From the Ghats, the land slopes to the west onto the plains, into an unbroken coastline. The nature of the terrain and its physical features divides an east-west cross section of the state into three distinct regions — hill and valleys, midland plains and coastal region.
Quick Facts
- Capital: Thiruvananthapuram
- Area: 38,852 sq km
- Population: approximately 35 million
- Official Language: Malayalam
- Literacy Rate: over 94% (highest in India)
- Known as: "God's Own Country"