The Temples at Madurai Latin America & Asia Holidays

Explore Madurai and the incredible Sri Meenakshi Temple complex.

One of South India’s great temple towns, constructed in the form of a lotus, Madurai is famous for the awe-inspiring Sri Meenakshi Temple complex. It is an animated city packed with pilgrims, beggars, business-people, bullock carts and underemployed rickshaw drivers. It’s one of South India’s oldest cities and has been a centre of learning and pilgrimage for centuries. A textile centre from way back, the city was also the setting for Mahatma Gandhi’s decision, in 1921, to wear nothing but khadi (homespun cloth).

Explore Madurai with our expert local guide.

The Sri Meenakshi Temple is the home of the fish-eyed Goddess Meenakshi Amman (‘fish-eyed’ is an adjective for perfect eyes in classical Tamil poetry), and is considered by many to be the height of South Indian temple architecture, as vital to the aesthetic heritage of this region as the Taj Mahal is to North India. It’s not so much a temple as a 6-hectare complex enclosed by 12 gopurams, the highest of which towers 52m over Madurai, rises from solid granite bases, and are covered with stucco figures of deities, mythical animals and monsters painted in vivid colours. There is an estimated 33,000 sculptures in the temple.

Mariamman Teppakhulam is a vast tank, 5km east of the old city, covering an area almost equal to that of Sri Meenakshi Temple. It is the biggest tank in the region of Tamil Nadu is filled with water year round.

Tirumalai Palace was built in 1636 AD, designed by an Italian architect, and served as the residence of the King. The palace is divided into two major parts, which include the royal residence, theatre, shrine, apartments, armoury, palanquin place, royal bandstand, quarters, pond and garden. One of the striking features of the palace are the massive white pillars connected by high decorated arches. Elsewhere, there are polished black stone pillars of varying heights.