Places to Visit in Thiruvellarai

On an island between two rivers stands a temple so large you enter it like a walled city — seven enclosures deep, guarded by the tallest gopuram in Asia, built around a god who lies asleep.

An abrupt bluff of near-primordial rock, crowned by two temples and wrapped in legend — the story of Trichy’s Rockfort and the stairway to Ucchi Pillayar.

A low wall of unhewn stone across the Kaveri, traditionally credited to Karikala Chola, has steered the river into the rice country of the delta for close to two thousand years — and still does.

Two days at the geographic heart of Tamil Nadu — the Rockfort rising over the old city, then the vast Srirangam temple island and its water-element neighbour at Thiruvanaikaval.

The mother goddess of rain, fever and protection — and the trail of temples where Tamil Nadu still worships her.

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.