Chennai
Capital Of Tamil Nadu; Formerly Madras, Founded Around Fort St George (1644); UNESCO Creative City Of Music · Chennai, Tamil Nadu
The capital of Tamil Nadu and the fourth-largest city in India, formerly Madras, which grew from Fort St George, the first fortress the British East India Company built in India, in 1644. The fort still stands and holds the Tamil Nadu legislature, a museum and St Mary's, the oldest Anglican church east of Suez. Chennai is the gateway to the temples of the south and a city with a strong character of its own. Marina Beach runs for kilometres along the Bay of Bengal and fills with families every evening, though the sea is too dangerous to swim in. In Mylapore, the Kapaleeshwarar temple, with its painted gopuram, sits among streets of flower sellers and old houses, and the San Thome Basilica stands over the tomb traditionally held to be that of the apostle Thomas. The Government Museum in Egmore has one of the world's great collections of Chola bronzes. In December and January the Music Season fills the city's halls with hundreds of Carnatic concerts. It is hot and humid most of the year, and floods in heavy monsoon rain.
Rajaji Salai, Fort St George, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600009, India
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED; confirm before planning. The typical pattern: museums including the Government Museum and the fort museum keep daytime hours and close one day a week (Friday is common in Chennai; check); temples open at dawn, close for several hours at midday and reopen late afternoon until night; the beach is open all day. The traps: arriving at a museum on its closing day, reaching a temple in the midday closure, and planning road trips during October to December downpours.