33,000 carved figures across thousand-pillared halls. The 9 p.m. closing ceremony is the moment the city pauses.
Fourteen gopurams, the tallest of them over fifty metres, carved and painted with thousands of figures — and inside, corridors that fill twice a day with people who have come to pray rather than to look.
Go for the evening rite, when Sundareswarar is carried to Meenakshi's chamber for the night, as he has been daily for centuries. Madurai has been continuously inhabited for well over two thousand years, and the temple is the reason.
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A heritage Chettinad mansion in Madurai's old quarter.
