It's a site of Archaeological Survey of India. Only ruins are there. All monuments are kept in Puducherry Museum. Boating is also closed now, may start after few days.
This place is not worth the visit. First of all there is nothing much to see except for a dilapidated structure, the only one which is remaining now. Apart from this structure there is nothing else. The place is now used for cattle grazing and is poorly maintained. There is no one to take care of in this area. Even the localites nearby don't know about this place. The access to this place is extremely difficult especially for 4 wheelers. Google maps will not give you the correct route in the last 1.5 kms. It shows the path wherein a two wheeler will have difficulty in going. After much searching and checking with the localites, finally we managed to get the route which a four wheeler can barely scrape through the road. The last 500 mtrs is a mud road and there are no sign boards either. So it's a great difficulty to reach the place. Once you reach there there is nothing except for one dilapidated structure. Personally I feel it is not worth the visit. Some hype has been created in the social media but there is nothing left in this place now. This place was a major trade centre between India and the Dutch many years ago. A lot of excavation was done and huge artifacts, utensils, coins and other items were found here during the excavations and they provided evidence to the trade which was happening earlier. Many of these can be seen in the Pondicherry museum which one should definitely visit. This place is about 8 km from white Town.
Arikamedu is a 2,000-year-old Roman ruins site located in Pondicherry. It's a great place for history buffs, but if you're not into history, you might not find it worthy of a visit. It's disheartening to see that there were no officials from the tourist or ASI department present. The government should consider taking care of this historical gem.
Arikamedu is an archaeological site in Southern India, in Kakkayanthope, Ariyankuppam Commune, Puducherry. It is 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from the capital, Pondicherry of the Indian territory of Puducherry. Sir Mortimer Wheeler 1945, and Jean-Marie Casal conducted archaeological excavations there in 1947-1950. The site was identified as the port of Podouke, known as an "emporium" in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and Ptolemy. Digs have found Amphorae, Arretine ware, Roman lamps, glassware, glass and stone beads, and gems at the site. However, this place is not maintained at all... being declared as archeological site still no one cares about it. Only the remains of site is available with no ticket and no proper roads to access. If you are going in your 4 wheeler then for sure you are going to get scratch marks because of the road!! Still you can get some great pictures. It's approx 10KM from Pondi and one should still spend around 10-15mimts max here !! Again here there is no parking, no road, no caretaker, no tickets.
The archeological site is a pretty small tourist attraction and nothing more to spend here other than 15 minutes. But close to here is the spot for mangrove kayaking and that's a great and unique experience which you can have in Pondicherry.
Historic place! Nice location, No watchman or caretaker, anyone can visit and do whatever they wish. This is the current situation of a historic place. It must be preserved with location details and visitor route maps, and descriptions on the building and surrounded places. It must be preserved well and handed over to next generation in good condition. One of the very old port town in South India. Great ambience in evenings,
The Puducherry administration can think of developing this place as a tourist attraction. We went there as a part of our boat ride through Mangrove forests.
It is a historic remain of old building. There is no one here. We can take photos.
