2024-03-15 Southern India: Mar 27 –Madurai Sightseeing - A Palace, a Reservoir, and a Temple

View of Madurai from our hilltop hotel.

Today is sightseeing in Madurai. The first photo stop was the Vandiyur Mariamman Teppakulam, a huge square tank of almost 16 acres. It dates from 1645 and is the largest tank in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Directly across from the tank was what looked to be a graveyard of tuk tuks and motorcycles.

As we were leaving the area we saw long stretches of bright colors. It turns out that weavers were drying long threads used in weaving.

We also saw them starching the threads. They starch them before drying to give the threads more body, making them easier to handle during the weaving process.

We drove by St. Mary’s Church but didn’t stop. The Dutch, Portuguese and English had a long history of being in this area and there is still a small Christian presence in the area.

The next stop was the Thirumalai Naik Palace. From the outside it looks large but not particularly impressive.

This 17^th century palace was undergoing a great deal of renovation but it was still possible to see the beauty of the building. The map shows, in red, the part we were able to visit. A good bit of the building isn't open. The scale of the whole thing is rather mind-boggling.

The massive, central courtyard covers an mind-boggling 42,000 square feet. It was set up with chairs. Perhaps they are planning an event here.

The throne room was massive and open to the gigantic courtyard.

There are almost 250 of the massive columns that soar to 82 feet. They are also covered with the limestone/egg white wash, making them silky and white.

The ceilings had amazing details.

There were a few ladies diligently (and probably futilely) sweeping dust from the floors.

More details of the palace.

As we were leaving, a truck with huge case (we think) was trying to get through the front gate. The cage was too high. We didn't stay around long enough to see if they figured out how to get it into the palace.

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More Thirumalai Naik Palace
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As we were leaving, we decided to support the local economy and bought some small bags. Pretty but pretty fragile. We don’t expect them to last.

We had lunch at this most interesting restaurant. There was a railcar attached to the side of the restaurant and some disjointed vintage cars set up as booths.

Food was fine and we decided to risk a milk shake. Almost everywhere in the world, including India, the milkshakes are just flavored milk. This one promised to have ice cream in it. It was very chocolatey (as we both like it) and it was almost thick with ice cream. Very good.

Next stop was the Meenashi Temple, one of the oldest and most significant temples in India. The original temple on this site dates back more than 2500 years. Much of the current complex dates from the 6^th century. Again, shoes were off and no photos inside. But we did get to go up onto a rooftop to get a few photos of the gates and the area.