Kerala, as they say, is “God’s Own Country,” a nod to its lush natural beauty, beguiling backwaters and wealth of spices that have been the Holy Grail for generations of seafarers. But the catchy tourism slogan could also be a tribute to the various religious traditions that have thrived there — especially in the port city of Kochi — for thousands of years. Kerala’s unique geography — hemmed in from the rest of India by the mountains to the east, but open to the world by the Arabian Sea to the west — meant the state in southwest India was a cosmopolitan melting pot for far-flung cultures. Hindus, Christians, Jews and Muslims lived side by side and traded with the Arabs and Chinese long before the Portuguese fumbled their way over (it was Kerala that Columbus was after in 1492 when he found himself in the Bahamas instead) and established the first European settlement in India at Cochin in 1500, kicking off successive waves of colonization by the Portuguese, Dutch and British.

Today, Kochi, as Cochin has been renamed, is a popular cruise ship stop and layover for travelers en route to houseboats that cruise through the idyllic backwaters of nearby Alappuzha. But its complex history merits a longer stay. Spend a weekend exploring historic Fort Kochi, whose narrow lanes are lined with buildings that are a legacy of thousands of years of cultural intermingling. And if you’re in the area between December 2020 and March 2021, you won’t want to miss the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, one of the world’s most exciting contemporary art events.

(Like much of India, Kochi has seen protests in recent days against a new citizenship law that many view as discriminatory. While the protests and the police response have involved violence in some parts of the country, Kochi’s protests have not affected areas frequented by tourists.)