MACHILIPATNAM -WIKIPEDIA
Machilipatnam
Machilipatnam (
pronunciation (help·info)), also known as Masulipatnam and Bandar, is a city in Krishna district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipal corporationand the administrative headquarters of Krishna district.[3] It is also the mandalheadquarters of Machilipatnam mandal in Machilipatnam revenue division of the district.[4][5] The ancient port town served as the settlement of European traders from the 16th century, and it was a major trading port for the British, Dutch and French in the seventeenth century.[6]
pronunciation (help·info)), also known as Masulipatnam and Bandar, is a city in Krishna district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipal corporationand the administrative headquarters of Krishna district.[3] It is also the mandalheadquarters of Machilipatnam mandal in Machilipatnam revenue division of the district.[4][5] The ancient port town served as the settlement of European traders from the 16th century, and it was a major trading port for the British, Dutch and French in the seventeenth century.[6]
Etymology
History
Masulipatnam port in 1759
View of Masulipatnam in 1676
The town has existed since the 3rd century BCE (Satavahana period) when, according to Ptolemy, it was known as Maisolos. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea calls it Masalia in the 1st-century BCE.[11] The port is on the southeastern, or Coromandel Coast, of India. At the mouth of the River Krishna on the Bay of Bengal, the Masula port saw flourishing sea trade.
Muslin was traded by ancient Greeks from the town and the word muslin originated from the name Maisolos.[12] Muslin was an important source of income for the town, being a favorite of Roman traders for domestic consumption. Several Roman coins were found during excavations of Buddhist towns near Machilipatnam.[13]
The town was the district headquarters of the then, Masulipatnam district and now to the Krishna district, which was formed in 1859 in the composite Madras state.[5]
The Machilipatnam port served as the principal seaport of the Golconda Kingdom (more anciently named Telangana) from the 15th to 17th centuries.[14]
Geography
Machilipatnam city is at 16.17°N 81.13°E on the southeast coast of India and in the east coast of Andhra Pradesh.[15] The city has an average elevation of 14 meters (45 feet).[16]
Climate
Machilipatnam city gets most of its annual rainfall due to the southwest monsoon. It has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen climate classification Aw) with hot summers and moderate winters. The hottest months are between April and June. The average normal rainfall in the district is {{convert|959|mm|inand Machilipatnam is vulnerable to high surges of the sea due to cyclones. The 1977 Andhra Pradesh cyclonecrossed the coast near Nizampatnam and took approximately 10,000 lives. As the storm approached the coast, gale winds reaching 200 km/h lashed Prakasam, Guntur, Krishna, East Godavari and West Godavari districts. A storm surge, 5 meters high, inundated the Krishna estuary and the coast south of Machilipatnam city (Bandar).
On 8 December 2004, a high capacity S-Band Doppler cyclone warning radar was installed, commissioned and made operational at the city.[17] It is from a German manufacturer, Gematronik. With the installation of the radar, the state will be better equipped to track cyclones by the onset of monsoon, according to an official from the State Met Office talking to the newspaper The Hindu. This facility will monitor the 960 km long coastline of the state.[18]
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