Rameswaram
One Of The Four Char Dham And One Of The Twelve Jyotirlingas · Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu
An island town in the Gulf of Mannar at the southeastern tip of India, one of the four Char Dham and one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, and so among the holiest places in Hinduism. The Ramanathaswamy temple is famous for its corridors, the longest of any temple in India, lined with carved pillars and running for over a kilometre in total. Pilgrims bathe first in the sea and then, in sequence, in twenty-two wells within the temple, each believed to hold different holy water, soaked from head to foot as attendants pour buckets over them. According to the Ramayana, Rama worshipped Shiva here before crossing to Lanka. The island is reached by the Pamban bridges across the sea, a new vertical-lift railway bridge having replaced the century-old one. At the island's tip, Dhanushkodi is a ghost town destroyed by a cyclone in 1964, and the road ends at a point looking towards Sri Lanka, with the chain of shoals called Ram Setu beyond. The house and memorial of former President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, born here, are also visited.
Ramanathaswamy Temple, East Car Street, Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, 623526, India
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the Ramanathaswamy temple opens very early, around 5 in the morning, closes for a few hours around midday or early afternoon, and reopens until about 9 at night; the well bath runs through the morning and day. Dhanushkodi and Arichal Munai are open in daylight only, and police close the road in storms or at dusk. The Kalam memorial keeps daytime hours and may close one day a week. Traps: arriving during the midday closure, and going to Dhanushkodi late. Confirm all times before travelling.