Nellaiappar Temple

The famed 'dark shop' halwa outlet opposite the Nellaiappar temple, established in 1900 and unchanged since, source of the wheat-ghee Tirunelveli halwa the city is known for.

An ancient Ganesha temple on the Thamirabarani at Manimoortheeswaram, about 2 km from Tirunelveli Junction and claimed to be the largest Vinayagar temple in Asia. Over 1,000 years old, it enshrines the rare Uchishta Ganapathy form along with 31 other forms of Ganesha.

The 1826 CMS cathedral of the CSI Tirunelveli Diocese, locally called 'Oosi Gopuram', built by Rev. Rhenius and a landmark of the region's mission history.

Tamil Nadu's 12th district museum, opened in 1992 at Palayamkottai, displaying bronzes, stone sculptures, hero stones, coins, palm-leaf manuscripts and prehistoric tools including finds from Adichanallur. Its galleries and dioramas showcase the region's tribal cultures and Tirunelveli folk arts.

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

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

An old Shiva temple at Melaseval village on the Ambasamudram road, standing near the larger Navaneethakrishnan temple. It is one of the Saivite shrines of the Thamirabarani belt west of Tirunelveli.

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 Ramsar-listed sanctuary in Nanguneri taluk that is the largest breeding reserve for water birds in South India, protected by the local village community.

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 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.