MADURAI: Porunai Archaeological Museum, which was inaugurated by Chief Minister MK Stalin on December 20, at Reddiarpatti in Tirunelveli, attracted a large number of visitors.

With great expectations, people gathered to get a glimpse of ancient artefacts displayed in the galleries.

The visitors were enthralled by the new experience at the museum, which was filled with antiquities from the ancient Tamil civilisation sites, including Sivagalai, Adichanallur, Korkai and Thulukkarpatti.

On day one when the museum, which is set on 13 acres of land, was open to public on December 23, visitor footfall crossed thousand two hundred and it witnessed a steady increase registering over 3,300 visitors on December 24 and with holiday being observed on December 25 to mark the festival of Christmas, the museum saw a turnout of 7,700 visitors.

On the next day (Friday), there was a slight fall in turnout as the turnout stood at 7,050 visitors.

Further, the expected turnout showed up last weekend when as many as 8,700 visited the museum on Saturday. Sunday closed out the weekend with a high turnout of 11,000.

Many visitors thanked the government for having created the museum in Tirunelveli.

A retired professor of history, S Bose, recalled his days when he felt the need for bringing back displaced antiquities from Adichanallur, an Iron Age urn burial site, and Korkai, the ancient seaport with its history of high-quality pearl fishery, which attracted Queen Cleopatra, the Roman Royalty.

“Now, the day has come,” he said, adding that unearthed artefacts from these two sites, preserved in a museum at Egmore, Chennai, have found their place of origin. “Thanks to the State government for the effort,” he said.