Monday, February 26, 2018

Lighthouse of the Week, February 25-March 3, 2018: Vizhinjam Lighthouse, Kovalam, Kerala, India



Last week, I featured a lighthouse from India, and noted that this was the first time I had featured a lighthouse from this country. I decided to seek for more, and I was rewarded with the almost unimaginably tropically picturesque Vizhinjam lighthouse.

Vizhinjam is on the coast, across from a beach appropriately named "Lighthouse Beach", and rising from a throng of palm trees. It's in the Indian state of Kerala, on the southwest coast, and because it is lapped by the waves of warm Arabian Sea, I think we can see where it gets its tropicality.

Now, when I first did this, I discovered there are many pictures of the similar-in- appearance, but not in location, Alapuzzha (alternatively, Aleppey) lighthouse, which is located further north on the coast. Indeed, many of the pictures of Vizhinjam mistakenly indicate they are pictures of Alapuzzha. So one outcome of this post is that I will straighten out that confusion. Alapuzzha is located a couple hundred meters inland, and as you can see at the link, Vizhinjam lighthouse is right on the coast. Plus, it's pretty close to the farthest southern point of the whole Indian subcontinent.

So let's get some stats from the Lighthouse Directory -- it's actually a pretty recent building -- and then let's get tropical, picture-wise (and video-wise, too).

"1972. Active; focal plane 57 m (187 ft); white flash every 15 s. 36 m (118 ft) round stone tower with lantern and gallery, painted with red and white horizontal bands; lantern dome painted red."
Click on the first and third pics for a larger version.









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