Places to Visit in Mettur

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.

A long grey wall of masonry pins the Kaveri to the Salem hills, storing the river that keeps the delta green and lighting much of the region.

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

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.

In the heart of old Salem stands a Mariamman the whole city calls its own. Kottai means fort — and around her shrine once stood the walls that gave Salem its name and her hers.