Chennai the capital city of TAMILNADU, is one of the largest Indian city and gateway to the festivals and rich cultural tradition. Chennai retains a charm characteristic of the typical south Indian heritage and way of living. Many places of tourist interest are located in and around the city. Let’s take a look at the top ten tourist spots the city. 1. MARINA BEACH : Chennai city is almost synonymous with MARINA. Pride of the Chennai city and one of the longest artificial beaches, running in 12 KM in length. With it’s natural sandy beauty and spacious promenade, the beach continues to be the most sought after rendezvous of many. It has acquired a south Indian aura with vendors hawking wars ranging from shell and glass baubles to kites and fruit juices. Light house is another special attraction in the MARINA, stands 48m above sea level at the southern end of MARINA commanding a panoramic view of the city. At the end of the MARINA is the sammadhi’s of the chief ministers of Tamilnadu. 2. TEMPLES: There are many number of temples in Chennai, but these three are the major ones: Sri Triruvalikeni parthasarathy swamy Temple: An ancient Lord KRISHNA‘s temple. It was originally built by the pallavas in th e8th century. But it was occupied at various times in the 16 and 17th centuries by the Goloconda, Dutch and French. A distinctive feature of the temple is that it houses five incarnations of Lord Vishnu and even has a small shrine to vishnu’s consort Vedavalli Ammal. Sri Mylapore Kapaleeswarar Temple: An ancient Shiva Temple. It is a delightful introduction in Dravidian temple architecture. There are some fragmentary inscriptions of 1250 AD which were damaged in 1566 by the Portuguese and the original temple was demolished. The present temple was rebuilt by the VIjayanagar kings in the 16th century. Sri Besant Nagar MahaLakshmi Temple: Located at Besant Nagar, Elliots Beach. It is dedicated to eight Lakshmi’s. A beautiful specimen of modern temple. It attracts large number of devotees. 3. KALASHETRA: Devoted to reviving the classical arts, the ‘Temple of Art.’ is in Adayar. It was founded by Rukmini Devi Arundale in 1936. KALASHETRA, today, has students from many countries. with the students and their gurus (teachers) living in the same campus in the ancient Indian tradition of Gurukulam where education is inseparable from other experience. 4. VALLUVAR KOTTAM: Situated in Nungambakkam. It is a memorial to poet-saint THIRUVALLUR who wrote the sacred book “THIRUKKURAL”-Highly valued for its ethical content and purest expression of human thought. A life size statue of THIRUVALLUR is seen in the shrine. 5. PARKS: The parks in Chennai, though limited are more famous for their purpose. CHEMMOZHIP POONGA near GEMINI FLYOVER, is a park full of trees &creepers with relevance in Tamil Literature. A complete botanical delight SNAKE PARK located in Guindy adjacent to the children’s park has a variety of reptiles ranging from snakes to monitor lizards and turtles. King cobras, banded kraits, puff adders, vipers, pythons, crocodiles and gaint turtles and some of the species that can be seen here CHILDREN’S PARK: situated in Guindy. It has a small collection of animals and birds. The main attraction in this park are elephant and pony rides. Besides this, there is also a playground with swings, slides and see-saws which delight any child. 6. THE NATIONAL ART GALLERY: Situated in Egmore. It is housed in a building built in 1906 in the Indo-saracenic style of architecture. The building itself is a work of art and was originally intended to be the Victoria memorial and technical institute. But it was made the National Art gallery I n 1951. 7. SHOPPING CENTRES: Parry’s corner is an important place in Chennai, it is a big bazaar for wholesale and retail shopping. We can get everything from this place. Burma Bazaar is having more than 500 stalls, exclusively for foreign goods. It is mainly attractive place for tourists and local people to buy luxurious goods. T.NAGAR &MAMBALAM is a shopping hub &it’s a paradise for shopper’s. Textiles showrooms, jewellers, automobiles, groceries, fruits &vegetables, cosmetics, house hold goods and many more knick-knacks are there to buy. More to this, eateries with splendid south Indian varieties along with other cuisines are available. Apart from these market places &bazaars, there are huge number of malls with National &International brand of products. 8. THE GOVERNMENT MUSEUM: undoubtedly one of the country’s best museum. Established in 1857, It has section devoted to geology, archaeology, anthropology, numismatics, botany, zoology and sculpture. There is a good collection of arms and armour and several other specimens. 9. ANNA CENTENARY LIBRARY: Located in Kotturpuram is a public library is built if 8 acres of land. The 9 floors library hosts 1.2 million books. There is a separate braille section in this library. 10.PLANETORIUM &PERIYAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Located at kottur in Chennai, houses fully modern &computerised projectors which pictures the heavens on a hemispherical dome. The planetarium presents to the visiting public and students audio-visuals programmes on various themes on science and technology.
I am really impressed with this list. There are so many places that I was never aware of, like the Kalashetra and the National art gallery. None of my relatives in Chennai have suggested these places to visit, so I am assuming even they don't know much about them.
