Chennai tourism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chennai's historic landmarks and buildings, long sandy beaches, cultural and art centers and parks constitute the major tourist and recreational attractions of the city. The most important tourist attraction of the city is actually in the neighbouring town of Mahabalipuram with its ancient temples and rock carvings of the 7th century Pallava kingdom.
The other historic tourist spots include the 8th century Kapaleeshwarar temple in Mylapore, characteristic of the ancient Dravidian style of architecture, the Parthasarathy temple in Triplicane, the San Thome Basilica and Fort St George.
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[edit] Beaches
The 13 km long and 400 to 500 meter wide Marina Beach is the pride of Chennai with the city Light House, memorials, statues, walkways, gardens and drives alongside the beachfront. The Elliot's Beach further south along the coast from Marina in Besant Nagar is preferred by younger Chennaiites with its promenade, restaurants and coffee shops. There are a large number of beaches between the Elliot’s Beach and Mahabalipuram, the most notable being the Covelong Beach which has a cove and a fort built by the Nawab of the Carnatic.
[edit] Art and Crafts
Tamil and Indian culture and tradition is on display in several art galleries and cultural centers. The Valluvar Kottam is an auditorium in memory of the poet-saint Thiruvalluvar. It also has a 101-feet high temple chariot structure. Kalakshetra, a centre for the revival of Indian art and crafts; especially the dance form of Bharatnatyam is located in Besant Nagar. The National Art Gallery built in 1907, houses 11th and 12th century Indian handicrafts, 17th century Deccan paintings, 16th to 18th century Mughal and Rajasthani paintings and 10th and 13th century bronzes and is part of the Government Museum. The world headquarters of the Theosophical Society was established in 1886 on the banks of the Adyar River. The shrines of all major faiths stand in its sprawling estate gardens. Cholamandal Artists' Village, on the East Coast Road offers a view of artists and sculptors at work in their own studios and permanent gallery. Dakshinachitra by the Chennai Craft Foundation is a depiction of the way of life prevalent in South India with exhibitions and workshops of the arts and crafts and performing artists of South India.
[edit] Parks
The Guindy National Park the country's smallest National Park, with an area of 2.76 km² is located completely inside the city. It hosts a variety of endangered deer, foxes, monkeys and snakes[1]. The Guindy Snake Park situated in the National Park has a large collection of snakes and is an important source of antivenom serum. The Arignar Anna Zoological Park (better known as Vandalur Zoo) is located southwest of the city and covers an area of 5.1 km². It has about eighty species on display, and includes a lion safari a nocturnal animal house and an aquarium. South of the city, along the East Coast Road, is an important centre for herpetological research called the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, which houses several fresh-water and salt-water crocodiles, alligators, gharials, and also turtles and snakes. The Botanical Garden of the Horticulture Department has a very wide variety of plants and even a fossilised tree trunk 20 million years old. A Summer Festival is held here annually during the month of May.
[edit] Shopping
Chennai has some unique places to offer for shopping. Art and crafts, contemporary and traditional artwork, antiques, jewellery etc. are available in the city. Traditional items like leaf and palmyra-fiber handicrafts from Tirunelveli, bronze and brass castings and traditional jewelry from Kumbakonam, metal works from Thanjavur, stone carvings from Mahabalipuram, silks from Kanchipuram are for sale in shops and boutiques. George Town and Parrys Corner are wholesale markets of Chennai where one can purchase almost anything. Many streets are entirely devoted to selling one particular type of merchandise. The nearby Burma Bazaar is famous for its counterfeit electronic goods and media, Moore Market for its large number of bookstores. Pondy Bazzaar located in T.Nagar, is home to huge multi-storey stores, unique to Chennai, which deal mainly in textiles and silks or gold, silver and diamond jewellery. Besides these shopping areas, the city has many modern shopping malls, departmental stores and boutiques, offering a variety of goods and products.
[edit] Entertainment
There are three large amusement parks and a water sports centre located in the outskirts of Chennai. There are also a large number of beach resorts all along the East Coast Road highway to Mahabalipuram. The city being home to the Tamil movie industry, has over 100+ large cinema theatres including a few multiplexes which screen English, Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam films. The city has a large number of restaurants offering a variety of Tamil, Indian and international cuisines. The nightlife in Chennai is vibrant and growing ranging from bars to pool parlours to lounges and clubs.
See travel-related information on Chennai at Wikitravel:Chennai
[edit] Historical Buildings and Memorials
In the city, one can notice the British influences in the form of old Cathedrals and the mix of Hindu, Islamic and Gothic revival styles resulting in the Indo-Saracenic style of architecture.
Built in 1639, Fort St George, houses the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly and Secretariat. Tipu Sultan's cannons decorate the ramparts of the Fort's museum. The Fort has the country's tallest flagstaff at a height of 150 feet. The Madras High Court (the largest judicial building in the world after the Courts of London), the Government Museum, the Chennai Central railway station, the Southern Railway headquarters, the Senate House of the Madras University and the College of Engineering, Guindy are some of the examples of Indo-Saracenic style of architecture.
Adjoining the Governor's residence (Raj Bhavan) at Guindy, there are five mandapams or memorials dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, the first Indian Governor General - C Rajagopalachari, former Chief Ministers of the state - Kamaraj and Bhaktavatsalam and one to Martyrs in general.
The Valluvar Kottam is an auditorium in memory of the poet-saint Thiruvalluvar. All 1330 verses of the poet's epic - the Thirukkural, are inscribed on the granite pillars that surround the auditorium. There is a 101-feet high temple chariot structure with a life-size image of the poet in it. The base of the chariot shows in bas-relief the 133 chapters of the Thirukkural.
Other buildings of architectural significance are the Ripon Building housing the Chennai Corporation, The War Memorial, The Presidency College, Vivekananda Illam, The Museum Theatre, The Egmore Railway Station and the Ramakrishna Mutt. Most of the colonial style buildings are concentrated in the area around the Chennai port and Fort St George.
