QUILON

town, administrative headquarters of Quilon district, southern Kerala state, southwestern India. Quilon has existed for many centuries and was called Elancon by early travellers, Kaulam Mall by the Arabs, and Coilum by the 13th-century Venetian traveller Marco Polo. Its location made it commercially important; the first Europeans there were the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch in 1662 and then by the British. The town is a port on the Arabian Sea northwest of Trivandrum, the state capital. It lies next to Asthamudi Lake, an inlet of the sea, and is linked with Alleppey and Cochin to the north by a system of canals and lagoons. Quilon has an active export trade and numerous industries, including mineral processing, manufacturing, and processing of agricultural products, especially cashew nuts. Kundara, a suburb to the northeast, has chemical, ceramic, and aluminum plants. Quilon has five colleges affiliated with the University of Kerala. A railway links it with towns to the north, east, and south. Quilon district is 1,785 sq mi (4,623 sq km) in area and is largely on the coastal plain between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats range. Pop. (1981) town, 137,943; metropolitan area, 167,598; district, 2,813,650.