Chennai (Madras)
This metropolis is often called the cultural capital of India for its deep-rooted traditions and long heritage. Chennai is a city younger than its image. More than any other city in India, it is a true reflection of this country’s diversity. In a time span of just over 350 years, Chennai has blossomed into a charming city that has a large heart and is very welcoming. It is a city that encourages all forms of development, both modern technology and the traditional arts and crafts, and it embraces a series of paradoxes. It was in 1639 that Francis Day and Andrew Cogan, agents for the English East India Company, acquired a strip of land on lease from the Vijayanagar King. They built the Fort St.George, which remains of the city’s important landmarks and serves as the Government Secretariat today. It was built to set up a factory that served as a nucleus for British settlements that began to be formed. Surrounding villages like Triplicane, Purasawalkam, Egmore and Chetput slowly merged with the new developments, to form Chennapatnam, as it was known. The city was called Madras till 1996 and then renamed Chennai. Today this buoyant metropolis is a blend of the old and the new, the traditional and the modern.
Spread over 200 square kilometres with the Bay of Bengal on the east, the city is the gateway to the rest of South India. There are verdant green patches found amidst the high-tech, high-rise buildings.
With a population of around six million, it is India’s fourth largest city. From before days of Independence to present , the people of Chennai have played an important role in shaping the country’s political destiny.
Rameshwaram
Rameswaram is as ancient as Ramayana. This place was noted in Ramayana. Devotees hailed Rameswaram as the Varanasi of the south. This island people Trust Sea for their living. It is treated as a holy place, devotees bathe in the sea and bathing gate is popular there. Rameswaram is known for its long corridors and towers and 36 theerthams. Veranda is 197metres long south to north. The temple is facing the east. The sea is just 100metres away from the entrance of the temple. Sea is very calm, that water is considered scared. There are many famous Temple located near Rameswaram. Kondandarama temple is located on the way between Dhanushkoti and the ramanatha temple. Ramanatha temple is the places which attract the devotees.
Madurai
Madurai is one of the oldest cities of India, with a history dating all the way back to the Sangam period of the pre Christian era. The glory of Madurai returned in a diminished form in the earlier part of this millennium; it later on came under the rule of the Vijayanagar kingdom after its ransack by the ravaging armies of Delhi (Malik Kafur). During the 16th and 18th centuries, Madurai was ruled by the Nayak Emperors, the foremost of whom was Tirumalai Nayakar. The Sangam period poet Nakkeerar is associated with some of the isodes of Sundareswarar – that are enacted as a part of temple festival traditions even today.
Kanyakumari
Kanyakumari or the Cape Comorin, the southern most tip of peninsular India is sprawled over an area of 1672 sq. km, occupying 1.29% of the total extent of Tamil Nadu. Kanyakumari is also known as Kanniyakumari in Tamil Language. It is the confluence point of three oceans – the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Apart from this, it is also a vital Hindu pilgrim center, renowned for its exotic sunrises and sunsets over the horizon. One of the unique features of Kanyakumari is the multicolored sand found on its beach.
Kovalam
It is 16 km from Thiruvananthapuram city, South Kerala. Kovalam is an internationally renowned beach with three adjacent crescent beaches. It has been a favourite haunt of tourists, especially Europeans, since the 1930s. A massive rocky promontory on the beach has created a beautiful bay of calm waters ideal for sea bathing.
