Chitlapakkam Lake

A Divya Desam praised in the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, unusually spread over two levels: Neervanna Perumal (Ranganatha) reclining at the hill base and Santhana Venkatesa Perumal plus Narasimha on the hilltop. Legend links the site to sage Valmiki and to Rama's visit during his exile.

An early 7th-century rock-cut cave temple on the Pallavaram hill attributed to Mahendravarman I, one of the oldest excavated shrines of the Pallava dynasty. Pallavaram is also a landmark in prehistory: Robert Bruce Foote found Palaeolithic 'Madras handaxe' tools here in 1863.

A living-history museum on the ECR at Muttukadu, opened in 1996 by the Madras Craft Foundation, with relocated and reconstructed traditional South Indian houses, craft demonstrations and folk performances.

A TTDC boating centre on the Muttukadu backwater lagoon along the ECR, about 36 km from Chennai. It offers rowboats, motorboats, kayaking and windsurfing on calm water, and serves as the venue for a backwater festival.

The beach at Kovalam or Covelong on the ECR, roughly 40 km south of Chennai, on the site of an old Dutch and Nawab-era port. Today it is known for its fishing village, a heritage beach resort set in a former Nawab's fort and a well-known surf school.

A working Murugan temple at Thiruporur in inland Chengalpattu, worshipping the god as Kandaswamy and closely tied to the 17th-century saint Chidambara Swamigal, with a tall five-tiered gopuram over a granite sanctum.

A reptile conservation park and research station on the ECR, founded in 1976 by Romulus Whitaker. It holds thousands of crocodiles and alligators across many species, runs a snake venom-extraction programme and works with the Irula tribal cooperative.

A Pallava-era rock-cut cave shrine carved into a small hill, dedicated to Narasimha in his fierce Ugra form with a red third eye. Originally a cave temple, it was later expanded with gopurams and mandapams. Pilgrims perform girivalam around the hillock and pray at the sacred Azhinjil tree behind the sanctum.

A Chola-period Shiva temple near Chengalpattu whose presiding deity Chandra Choodeswarar is associated with the moon god Chandra. It is a noted parihara (remedy) shrine for those seeking relief from planetary afflictions, and it retains fine early stonework and inscriptions.

A striking open-air Pallava rock-cut pavilion at Saluvankuppam, framed by a fan of carved yali (mythical lion-tiger) heads, set in a coastal grove a short drive north of Mamallapuram.

A Pallava rock-cut cave temple near Saluvankuppam dedicated to Shiva, notable for its Somaskanda relief panels and inscriptions in Pallava-Grantha and Nagari scripts praising the king Atiranachanda. It sits close to the Tiger Cave and the excavated Subrahmanya shrine.

A small, elegant structural Shiva temple in the Mamallapuram group, built in the early 8th century during the reign of Rajasimha Pallava. It stands apart on the northern edge of the town. The shrine shows the transition from rock-cut to structural architecture that later produced the Shore Temple.