Nedumkotta or Travancore lines was a wall built as a protection against consistent invasions from Mysore during the (de facto) rule of Tipu Sultan. It was built by the Dharma Raja Karthika Thirunal (d.A D 1764), King of Travancore, with the request, support and permission of the Kingdom of Kochi. It was constructed by Rama Varma under the supervision of his commander Eustachius De Lannoy. The work was started in 1762 it was completed only by 1775. The lines consist of a ditch about sixteen feet broad and twenty feet deep with a thick bamboo hedge in it, a slight parapet and good rampart and bastions on rising grounds almost flanking each other from one extreme of the lines to the other. The construction of Nedumkotta or the Travancore Lines is considered to be a unique and unparallel episode in Indian History by historians. Background The Nedumkotta was a defence fortification constructed along the northern borders of the erstwhile Travancore allied Cochin State of 1757–1762 AD. The places north of Nedumkotta was under Zamorin occupied Cochin (1757–1762). It passed through the territories of the then Cochin State. The Nedumkotta was built primarily to resist the invasion under Hyder Ali Khan against Travancore State and southern parts Cochin State. It was raised mainly with clay and mud, and reinforced with stones, laterite and granite at strategic places. It started from the KrishanKotta on the west coast, above Kodungallur, and stretched up to the Anamala Hills on the Western Ghats. It was about 48 km long, 20 feet wide and 12 feet high. The lines consisted of a ditch, sixteen feet wide and twenty feet deep with a thick bamboo hedge, a slight parapet and rampart and bastions on rising grounds almost flanking each other from one side of the lines to the other. Its alignment was along the Periyar river on the west coast up to Chalakudy from where it went along the Chalakudy river up to the Annamalai Hills in the east. There were underground cells to store gunpowder and other war materials, special chambers for soldiers to live, and look-outs and mounted field-guns all along the fortification. Besides, on the north side of the fortification, ditches were dug twenty feet wide and sixteen feet deep, and filled with thorny plants, poisonous snakes, and hidden weapons. On the south side as well as on the top of the fortification, wide