Places to Visit in Sikkal

On the delta between Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam, a temple famous for one story: the day Murugan is said to have been handed the Vel before his war with Surapadman.

On a quiet stretch of the Tamil Nadu coast stands a white Gothic shrine that draws millions of pilgrims of every faith, and that famously survived the 2004 tsunami.

Five white minarets rise over a fishing town north of Nagapattinam. This is Nagore Dargah — a four-century-old Sufi shrine where Hindus and Muslims have long worshipped side by side.

A multi-district trail through Tamil Nadu’s Christian heritage — the apostle’s tomb in Chennai, the great basilicas of Velankanni and Thoothukudi, and the Danish mission churches of Tranquebar.

Two days along the Nagapattinam–Mayiladuthurai coast — Velankanni’s basilica, Nagore’s dargah, Chola Shiva temples and the Danish fort at Tranquebar, in a workable route.

From the 18th-century heronry at Vedanthangal to the flamingo-pink lagoons of Point Calimere and Pulicat — where to watch birds in Tamil Nadu, and when.

From the Marina in Chennai to the tip of the peninsula — the towers that light the Coromandel and Gulf-of-Mannar coast, and how to climb them.