Madurantakam Lake

A Rama temple beside the vast Madurantakam tank, famed for the legend of 'Eri Katha Ramar', the Rama who saved the lake. British collector Colonel Lionel Place recorded that during a threatening flood in the early 1800s, two figures in bright attire were seen guarding the bund, which held. He credited the miracle to Rama and endowed the temple.

One of India's oldest water-bird sanctuaries, protected since the 18th century and declared an official sanctuary in 1936. This wetland southwest of Chennai draws thousands of migratory birds that nest here, with the peak from November to March.

A colonial-era garden bungalow at Karunguzhi associated with Robert Clive of the East India Company, said to have used it as a country retreat in the 18th century. The weathered structure survives as one of the district's few tangible relics of early British Madras Presidency history.

One of Tamil Nadu's most visited Shakti shrines, the Arulmigu Adhiparasakthi Siddhar Peetam rose to prominence after the deity was enshrined in 1977 by Bangaru Adigalar. Devotees of any caste or gender may enter the sanctum and touch the deity, and all wear red. Tradition holds that 21 Siddhars, several of them women, attained Jeeva Samadhi at the site.

A hilltop Shiva temple, Vedagiriswarar, reached by a climb of roughly 500 stone steps at Thirukazhukundram, long known as Pakshi Tirtham. In tradition two eagles or kites once came daily to the summit, while the Bhaktavatsaleswarar temple sits at the base of the hill.

An undeveloped fishing-village beach on the southern ECR stretch of the district near Kadapakkam, close to the ruined Alamparai Fort. Its long empty sands and active fishing hamlets make it a rustic contrast to the tourist beaches further north.

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 weathered 17th-18th century Dutch East India Company fort at Sadras (Sadurangapattinam) on the Coromandel coast, with brick ramparts, sea-facing bastions and a small Dutch cemetery of carved tombstones. It is an ASI-protected ruin standing quietly by the Bay of Bengal.

A ruined 18th-century fort at Alamparai (Alamparai Kottai) on the coast near Kadapakkam, built in the Nawab era as a busy trading port. Its broken ramparts run out towards a backwater estuary where the water meets the sea, making it one of the ECR's most atmospheric ASI ruins.

A quiet, wide sandy beach on the ECR coast beside the historic Sadras Dutch Fort and near Kalpakkam. Far less crowded than Mamallapuram, it draws day-trippers who pair the shoreline with the 17th-century fort ruins and Dutch cemetery just inland.

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.

Five monolithic 7th-century Pallava temples, each hewn from a single granite boulder and named for the Pandava brothers and Draupadi; a highlight of Mahabalipuram's UNESCO ensemble.