Adithavarneswarar Temple, Melaseval

A roughly 700-year-old Vishnu temple on the Thamirabarani about 16 km west of Tirunelveli, built under the Travancore Samasthanam. Its moolavar is a rare standing Krishna holding butter in both palms, and the maha mandapam walls carry over 40 carvings from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavata.

A Shiva temple on the right bank of the Thamirabarani, the second of the nine Nava Kailasam temples strung along the river.

A 12th-century Pandya Vishnu temple on the banks of the Thamirabarani at Cheranmahadevi, noted for its carved mandapams.

A town on the Thamirabarani famed for the Pattamadai pai, a superfine korai-grass mat woven so tightly it can be folded like cloth, a GI-tagged handicraft once presented to royalty. The riverbank village is the traditional centre of this centuries-old silk-mat weaving craft.

A more than 1,000-year-old Vishnu temple on the Thamirabarani at Athalanallur, about 26 km from Tirunelveli in Ambasamudram taluk. The deity is worshipped as Bhoomi Neela Sameda Aadhimoola Perumal and is associated with the Gajendra Moksha legend.

A Shiva temple over 1,200 years old on the Thamirabarani near Veeravanallur, its five-tier Chitra Gopuram covered in rare Vijayanagara- and Nayak-era murals and wood carvings of the Ramayana, Mahabharata and local puranas. The temple precinct doubles as a protected bird sanctuary where pelicans and painted storks nest in the surrounding trees.

A roughly 900-year-old Vishnu temple on the Thamirabarani at Kallidaikurichi, dedicated to Adhi Varaha Perumal, the boar incarnation of Vishnu. The composer-saint Muthuswami Dikshitar composed a kriti in praise of this shrine.

An ancient Shiva temple in the heritage town of Kallidaikurichi on the south bank of the Thamirabarani, enshrining a swayambhu lingam worshipped as Manendiappar with consort Vadivambikai. Stone inscriptions record renovations by the Madurai Nayak rulers, and the town is dotted with high-gopuram Pandya and Nayak temples.

A Shiva temple on the Thamirabarani near Tirunelveli, counted among the nine Nava Kailasam shrines of the river.

A historic taluk town on the Thamirabarani, the road-and-rail gateway to Papanasam, Manimuthar and the Ghats, with riverside temples and bathing ghats.

One of the oldest temples of Ambasamudram, a Shiva shrine on the Thamirabarani said to have a history stretching back around 2,000 years. It belongs to the cluster of ancient riverside temples that make Ambasamudram and Kallidaikurichi a temple-heritage belt.

A 1,000-year-old Shiva temple 4 km from Ambasamudram, built by Rajaraja Chola in a village he donated to Vedic Brahmins. Its premises carry numerous Chola inscriptions, including a Vatteluttu inscription of Rajaraja I on the river steps, marking it as an important early-medieval temple.