Cherthala is not, in honesty, a sightseeing town. It has no fort, no palace and no preserved quarter. It is a taluk headquarters on NH-66 between Kochi and Alappuzha: the temple and its ground at the centre, a bus stand, the highway running through, shops and small workshops. Being clear about that is the precondition for saying what it is actually good for.
The shelf
The land here is a narrow coastal shelf with the Arabian Sea a few kilometres west and the Vembanad backwater a few kilometres east. It is low, sandy, densely planted with coconut and threaded with canals and lagoons — and it is unlike either of the two landscapes it sits between. It is not the beach strip and it is not the paddy backwaters of Kuttanad. It is a third thing, and driving across it from sea to lagoon takes very little time and shows you all three.
What Cherthala is the junction for
This is the practical case for stopping. The coast opens out around the town, and Cherthala is the road junction and the market for all of it — which is a fair description of what it has been for four hundred years.
From Cherthala
| Direction | What is there |
|---|---|
| West | Arthunkal, with its great pilgrimage church |
| South | Mararikulam and its beach |
| East, across the taluk | Thanneermukkom, where the bund crosses the Vembanad |
| In the town | The Sree Karthyayani Devi Temple, and its eight-day Pooram in May–June |
The Pooram, if the timing suits
The Cherthala Sree Karthyayani Devi Temple’s eight-day Pooram in May–June is one of the big festivals of northern Alappuzha. The temple’s founding legend — the goddess found with her head in a muddy pond and raised from it by Vilwamangalam Swamiyar, from which *cher*, mud, and *thala*, head, give the town its name — is set out on the temple’s own page, told as a founding legend rather than as an event.
The honest case
Cherthala is on the NH-66 between Kochi and Alappuzha and costs almost nothing to stop in. What it offers is a name that used to belong to a kingdom, a landscape entirely given over to one tree, and an industry that turns that tree’s waste into rope. Those three things are the same story told three ways, and an hour here with that in mind is a better hour than most sightseeing towns give you.
Frequently asked questions
Is there anything to see in Cherthala town itself?
The Sree Karthyayani Devi Temple and its ground are the town’s centre and its one substantial site. There is no fort, palace or preserved quarter; the interest is the working coir landscape and the position.
What is near Cherthala?
Arthunkal and its pilgrimage church to the west, Mararikulam’s beach to the south, and the Thanneermukkom bund across the taluk to the east.
When is the Cherthala Pooram?
The temple’s Pooram runs eight days in May–June and is among the major festivals of northern Alappuzha. Confirm the dates with the temple in the year you travel.