Tamilnadu is famous for its temples. Every city and village has its own temples. The temples at thanjavur, kanchi, madurai, Chidambaram and of Chennai are all famous. The gopurams and temple walls are covered with sculptures and paintings. The famous dynasties that ruled over the tamil country have left behind examples of their art and architecture. These historical monuments and temples attract tourist from all over the world.
Mahabalipuram : one of the most famous places is the mahabalipuram temple built by the pallava kings. The place lies on the coast, south of chenani. There are rock-cut caves, the five rathas and other sculptures and carvings. Only one is left. The tsunami and the uplevel on the coast have disclosed relies of more temples at mahabalipuram.
The brahadeeswar temple built by raja raja chozhan at his capital city thanjavur is famous. It has on the biggest gopurams of all temples. All there chola temples have been given world heritage site status by unesco for their excellence in building architecture and sculpture. They are among the best building in the world. The temple gopuram that you see in the emblem of tamilnadu government. The big round dome or shikhara on top of the gopuram weighs over 81 tons and is made of a single rock. It was dragged up and inclined plane 6.5 km long. The carkings on the inner walls depict 108 bharatanatyam dance poses. There are lots of paintings on the walls too, there is also a large nandi curved out of a single rock.we cannot see the shadow anywhere of gopuram around the temple. this is the miracle of tamil architecture.
Raja raja’s son rajendra chola built a new capital city gangaikondacholapuram in permabalur district. The built a brahadeeswarar temple there raja rajan II built his own new capital at darasuram. The airavateswaram temple there has a mandapam built like a chariot with spoked wheats, drawn by horses. The people who built the sun temple at konark a hundred years later must have got inspiration from darasuram.
Many temples in India have musical pillars. Darasuram has musical steps, on a staircase. Each steps makes a different sound. Many of the beautiful brokes from these there chola are lsot. The few that remain are in the thanjavur museum.
The madurai meenakshi temple is one of the biggest temples. It has four tall gopurams decorated with sculptured figures. It has a hall with a thousand pillars. It you strike the pillars they will produce different notes. The tirumala nayakar mahal or palace is also in madurai.
Kanchipuram was once reputed to have a 1,000 temples. Now about a hundred exist, along with mosques and churches. Kanchi was a famous forhindu, Buddhist and jain scholars. The kamakshhi and varadarajan temples here are famous the sri ranganathan temple at srirangam has seven prakarams or courtyards and has the biggest area of all temples. The rock fort at tiruchi is a well known historical monument. A vigneshwarar temple is at the top of the rock. The natarajar temple at Chidambaram, the oppiliappan temple at kumbakonam, the andal temple at srivilliputhur the lost is endless.
Rameswaram is a small island in the gulf of mannar. It is connected by road to rail to the mainland. It has 22 theerthams in and around the ramalingasamy temple. The temple has a 1000 pillared hall and the longest corrider in the world.
The st. mary’s church at velanganni attracts pilgrims from all over India. Hindus as well as Christians. The dargah at nagore is a famous muslim centre near velanganni. There again people of all religions come to pray.
There are old forts at places like vellore and gingee.
Among the newer monuments is the Vivekananda memorial built in 1970 at kanyakumari. Nearby is a statue of thiruvalluvar about 40m high. It is actually133 fort high. One foot for every one of the 133 chapters of the thirukural. The three oceans or seas the bay of Bengal the Indian ocean and Arabian sea meet here. A Gandhi mandapam has also built at kanyakumari as a memorial to the father of our nation.
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