If you have a day in Chennai and looking for something to do, I can strongly recommend visiting a few temples. Here´s my top three list of the temples of Chennai and surrounding.
Top One – Kapaleeshwar Temple
The Kapaleeshwar Temple is one of the most active and famous temples around the area as well as the #1 of 286 things to do in Chennai, according to Tripadvisor. It was also my favourite Chennai temple and definitely worth a visit. If you are short of time and have to pick only one sight I would go for this one.
The Kapaleeshwar Temple is said to be the temple of Shiva, the destroyer, one of the main deities of Hinduism. Already the impressive rainbow coloured beautifully sculptured gateway promises something extraordinary. It is a calm place full of colours and decorations – a perfect getaway from the busy streets and traffic jams. I visited the temple on a weekday early in the morning, which was ideal as it was not that crowded. You need to take off your shoes before entering and there are also some certain parts of the temple you cannot enter as a non-Hindu. And of course, as in many of the Hindu temples, there are also cows in the temple.
Top two – San Thome Basilica
I was actually not planning to visit the San Thome Basilica but I´m happy my driver brought me as this place is very unique. The building itself looks beautiful, all shining white in the sunlight, but the reason it is interesting is that it is one of three Churches in the world that is build over the tomb of an Apostle of Jesus Christ. Apostle St. Thomas came to India in A.D.52, martyred in A.D.72 and is said to be buried here. He is the one that brought Christianity to India and is considered to be the Father of Indian Christianity. Santiago de Compostela in Spain (built over the tomb of St. James) and St. Peters Basilica in Rome are the other two churches. San Thome Basilica has an underground tomb chapel in a separate building next to the church. The tomb is in the basement and you see people pray in front of the sepulchre of St. Thomas. Visiting this church really gave me a unique feeling. People from around the world come to visit this pilgrimage site and the tomb entrance displays pictures of His Holiness Pope John Paul II who visited the church and prayed here in 1986. It was very interesting and educational, and good for history lovers as well.
Top three – Mahapalipuram Shore Temple
This sandstone shore temple is situated around 60 km south from Chennai. It is a quite unique location as it overlooks the Bay of Bengal, even though the sea view was partly hidden by trees and bushes. I guess the view from the sea would be quite nice if you would walk along the beach to the other side. We arrived by noon and it was freaking hot, temperatures rising up to 42 degrees Celsius on a sunny day. It did not ruin our visit in any way but if you can, try get there early or make sure to cover your shoulders, head and nose 🙂
Once again I got a bit frustrated by the entrance fee. The fee was 10 rupees for Indians and 250 rupees for the rest of us. Quite a gap in the pricing. As usual I tried to buy two Indian tickets from the guy behind the counter, but of course ended up paying 250 to get in.
Well worth the 250 rupees the Mahapalipuram Temple is said to be one of the oldest temples in South India. It is a twin temple dedicated both to Vishnu and Shiva with thousands of sculptures to the glory of the deities. The area has a group of beautiful sanctuaries, which was carved out of rock in the 7th and 8th centuries. The group of monuments at Mahapalipuram has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984. This place was well worth a visit even though you need to arrange for a driver to get there.
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