Madurai travel guide

Top 10 sights in Madurai

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1. 

   1© Vyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0

   Meenakshi Temple

   A temple to Parvati as Meenakshi and Shiva as her consort, rebuilt from the seventeenth century after an earlier one was sacked in 1310. Fourteen towers rise over it, crowded with painted figures, and its hall of a thousand pillars holds nine hundred and eighty-five carved columns.

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2. 

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   Kazimar Big Mosque

   The oldest mosque in Madurai, founded in the thirteenth century by a descendant of the Prophet who settled here, and whose tomb stands beside it. The same family has provided its custodians for seven centuries.

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3. 

   3© R.K.Lakshmi · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Thirumalai Nayakkar Mahal

   A palace built in 1636 by the Nayak ruler of Madurai, of which about a quarter survives. Its courtyard is ringed by granite columns twelve metres high carrying a stucco dome, and the British dismantled the rest for building material.

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4. 

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   Gandhi Memorial Museum

   A museum in a seventeenth-century Nayak palace, opened in 1959 and one of the few Gandhi museums the national trust designates as principal. It holds the blood-stained dhoti he was wearing when he was shot.

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5. 

   5© Ssriram mt · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Subramaniya Swamy Temple, Thiruparankundram

   A temple to Murugan cut into a rock hill outside Madurai, and one of the six abodes where the god is held to have stopped. The inner shrine is hewn from the living rock and reached along a colonnade added later.

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6. 

   6© VijayaVSR · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Keeladi excavation site

   A settlement near Madurai excavated from 2015, which produced brick structures and potsherds scratched with Tamil-Brahmi letters. The finds have been used to argue that urban life in the Tamil country began several centuries earlier than assumed.

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7. 

   7© Ssriram mt · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Koodal Azhagar Temple

   A Vishnu temple in Madurai whose shrine is built in three storeys, each holding the god in a different posture — seated, standing and reclining. The arrangement is rare and the temple is one of the hundred and eight sacred Vaishnava sites.

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8. 

   8© Ssriram mt · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Pushpavaneswarar temple

   A Shiva temple at Madurai. It takes its name from the grove of trees around it and is one of the temples on the local pilgrimage route.

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9. 

   9© Online Catalogue for Indian Movie Locations · CC BY 2.0

   St. Mary's Cathedral, Madurai

   The Catholic cathedral of Madurai, built in the nineteenth century and dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. It is the seat of an archdiocese covering much of southern Tamil Nadu.

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10. 

    10© எஸ்ஸார் · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Samanar Hills

    A rocky hill ten kilometres west of Madurai where Jain monks lived from before the Christian era. Stone beds, carved figures of tirthankaras and Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions are cut into the shelters.

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1. 

   1© Wasifwasif · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Thiruparankundram Dargah

   A Sufi shrine on the northeastern side of the hill whose southern face carries a major Murugan temple, so that two pilgrimages share one rock. The arrangement has been cited both as a model of coexistence and, more recently, as a dispute.

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2. 

   2© Ssriram mt · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Thirumohoor Kalamegaperumal Temple

   A Vishnu temple near Melur outside Madurai, one of the hundred and eight sacred Vaishnava sites, where the god is worshipped in a form said to have brought rain. Its bronze of Vishnu as Kalamegha is the temple's treasure.

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3. 

   3© Ssriram mt · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Narasingam Yoga Narasimha Perumal Temple

   A Narasimha temple on a rock hill outside Madurai. It is cut into the rock as a cave temple and keeps sculpture of the Pandya period.

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4. 

   4© Udhayan1983 · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Thirupparankundram Rock-cut Cave and Inscription

   A cave temple cut into the south face of the Thirupparankundram hill in the eighth century under the Pandyas, with inscriptions on its walls that are used to date the rock-cut work of the period.

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5. 

   5© Nileshantony92 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Mattuthavani

   A district on the northeastern edge of Madurai holding the intercity bus terminus and the wholesale vegetable market — the point through which most people and most produce enter the city.

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6. 

   6© Mohan Krishnan (talk) · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Thiru Aappanoor

   A temple at Madurai, standing on the bank of the Vaigai and dedicated to Vishnu. It forms part of the local pilgrimage circuit.

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7. 

   7© Saba.k16 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Shri Pathirakali Mariamman Temple

   A temple to the goddess in Madurai, close enough to the Meenakshi temple to be visited on the same round.

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8. 

   8© Saurabh Sharan · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Vandiyur Mariamman Temple

   A temple to the goddess Mariamman beside one of the largest temple tanks in Tamil Nadu, some three hundred metres square. Once a year the deities are floated on rafts across it, which is the festival the tank was dug for.

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9. 

   9© ஜுபைர் அக்மல் · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Sungam Mosque

   A mosque in the Sungam area of Madurai. The intercity bus terminal and the market are close by, so it serves those passing through.

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