Gandhi Statue

The former palace of the Nawab of the Carnatic (Arcot) at Chepauk, completed around 1768, it is widely regarded as one of the earliest Indo-Saracenic buildings in India; later occupied by government offices, it was partly damaged by a 2012 fire and has since undergone restoration.

One of India's oldest colleges, tracing its origin to 1840, it moved to its landmark Indo-Saracenic building on the Marina in 1870. Alumni and faculty include Nobel laureates Sir C. V. Raman and S. Chandrasekhar and many national leaders. Its long seafront facade is an iconic part of the Marina skyline.

The samadhi of matinee idol and former Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran, built on the Marina in 1988 and later expanded to incorporate the Amma Memorial of J. Jayalalithaa. Adorned with sculptures and landscaped grounds, it is a major site of political pilgrimage. It adjoins the Anna Memorial on Kamarajar Salai.

The samadhi of C. N. Annadurai (Anna), founder of the DMK and former Chief Minister, built on the northern Marina at the spot of his 1969 cremation, whose funeral drew one of the largest crowds ever recorded. A black-marble platform and pavilion mark the site on Kamarajar Salai. It sits beside the MGR and Jayalalithaa memorials.

An iconic bronze sculpture on the Marina by Debi Prasad Roy Chowdhury, installed on Republic Day 1959, showing four straining men heaving a rock to symbolise the dignity of labour. It is regarded as one of modern India's most powerful public sculptures and a symbol of the working class. It stands near the Labour Statue junction on the beach.

The Senate House is the ceremonial hall of the University of Madras at Chepauk, designed by Robert Chisholm and completed in 1879. A landmark of Madras's pioneering Indo-Saracenic architecture, it blends Byzantine, Rajput and South Indian motifs, and has been carefully restored in recent years after a long period of decay.

A statue on the Marina of Kannagi, the wronged heroine of the Tamil epic Silappadikaram, depicted holding aloft the anklet with which she confronted the Pandya king. Installed in 1968, it was controversially removed in 2001 and restored to the beach in 2006 after public pressure. It is a celebrated emblem of Tamil cultural pride.

Founded in 1914 on the Marina seafront, it was the first women's college in South India and the third in the country. Its colonial buildings educated pioneering women including former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa. The campus overlooks the bay near the Anna and MGR memorials.

A natural urban beach stretching along the Bay of Bengal, widely regarded as the longest natural urban beach in India, known for its wide sands, promenade, colonial-era lighthouse and rows of statues. The sea here is dangerous for swimming due to strong rip currents and steep drop-offs.

Also called the Big Mosque (Periya Palli), it was built in 1795 by the family of Nawab Wallajah Muhammad Ali Khan of the Carnatic, with the Nawab's mother funding its completion. Constructed of granite without steel or timber and topped by two tall minarets and domes, it is one of the oldest and grandest mosques in Chennai. It remains the principal congregational mosque of Triplicane.

One of Chennai's oldest temples, this Dravidian-style Vishnu shrine in Triplicane is dedicated to Krishna as Parthasarathy, the charioteer of Arjuna. Attributed to the Pallavas and among the 108 Divya Desams, it enshrines five forms of Vishnu and is celebrated in the early-medieval Tamil hymns of the Alvar saints.

An iconic arched bridge over the Coovum river linking Fort St. George with the Marina, originally built in 1869 and named after Governor Francis Napier. Its curving span frames classic postcard views of the lighthouse and bay. In recent years it was repainted in bright rainbow colours, making it a favourite photo and film-shooting spot.