Places to Visit in Kanjamalai

Coffee-scented and often overlooked, Yercaud is the Eastern Ghats' answer to Ooty — a hill station you climb to on twenty hairpin bends.

A large city ringed by the Shevaroys and Kanjamalai, Salem pairs busy temples and lakes with a giant Kaveri dam and the hill escape of Yercaud.

From the 2nd-century Grand Anicut to the vast Stanley Reservoir at Mettur, Tamil Nadu’s dams are both the lifelines of its river plains and some of its finest scenic outings.

Day one in Salem with its hill fort and the great Kaveri dam at Mettur; day two up twenty hairpin bends to Yercaud, the Shevaroys, quiet lake and coffee country.

Kanchipuram silk, Chettinad Kandangi cotton and Athangudi tiles, Thanjavur bronzes and Tanjore paintings, Salem silk, Madurai Sungudi and Bhavani carpets — a craft trail across Tamil Nadu.

Tea belongs to the high Nilgiri ridgelines; coffee to the shadier Shevaroys, Palanis and Kollis. Here is where each grows, how the estates came to be, and how to visit a working factory or bungalow.