The massive sculpture of a mermaid at Shankumugham Beach has been adjudged the ‘largest merperson sculpture’ in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records. The sculpture was sculpted by Kanayi Kunhiraman.
Merperson is a mythological creature with a human upper half (head, arms and torso) and a piscine lower half.
The sculpture of a nude mermaid reclining in a shell was made using concrete in an iron framework and lowered 6 feet under the ground. It is 87 feet long and 25 ft high.
The Kerala Tourism Department had entrusted Kanayi Kunhiraman with the work in 1990. Later it was decided that a mermaid be sculpted matching the nature and geography of the place. It took two years to complete the work. Kanayi did not take any remuneration for the work.