Mahabalipuram – a place of historic monuments

It is also called as Mamallapuram. Mahabalipuram is a town in Kancheepuram district in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. It is 7th century port city and it is around 60 km south from Chennai. It has been classified by the UNESCO world heritage site as a place with lot of historic monuments.

The beauty of the place not only lies in the architecture and monuments but the casuarinas trees and the silver sandy beach also adds fame to the place. The hand made crafts is also a collective splendor.

Following are some of the information about Mahabalipuram.

Mahabalipuram Area: 8 sq. km.

Mahabalipuram Altitude: Sea level

Mahabalipuram Population: 12,000

Mahabalipuram Clothing: Tropical

Mahabalipuram Languages Spoken: Tamil and English

Mahabalipuram Tourist Season: Through the year

Some important tourist attractions include:

Thiukudalmallai – the temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu



Descent of the Ganges – an open air bas relief

Arjuna’s Penance – an episode from the Hindu Epic (Mahabharata)




Varaha cave temple – a mall rock cut temple




Shore temple – structural temple at the shores of Bay of Bengal



Pancha Rathas (Five Chariots) – 5 monolithic pyramids structure which was named after the pandavas (Arjuna, Bhima Yudhishtra, Nakula, and Sahadeva).

Maldives Islands

Maldives the magical islands is located to the South West of Sri Lanka. There are 26 natural neighbouring coral islands (atolls). These are divided into 19 administrative atolls. Maldives is one of the most beautiful islands in the world.

The Maldives stretches 823 km north to south and 130 km east to west. In Maldives 200 islands are inhabited with 88 islands adapted. The Maldives is formed with 99% of sea. Only 0.331% is the land part.

Sultan Park built on the southern side of the demolished royal palace is the most common tourist attraction. The park also consists of a National Museum.

Maldives has 92 resorts providing first class tourism. Between the years 1972 to 2007 the number of resorts has been increased from 2 to 92. Mostly all the tourist arrives to the Male International Airport situated on the Hulhule Islands. The airport has a huge number of flights flying to India, Sri Lanka, Dubai, and other major airports in south East Asia.

Gan Airports on the southern atoll also has an international flight to Milan many times a week.

Famous Travel Quotes

One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them by chance, in a lucky hour; at the world's end somewhere.- Willa Cather

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page. - St. Augustine

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The traveler that resolutely follows a rough and winding path will sooner reach the end of his journey than he that is always changing his direction, and wastes the hour of daylight in looking for smoother ground and shorter passages. - Samuel Johnson

When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable. - Clifton Fadiman

I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list. - Susan Sontag

A traveller. I love his title. A traveller is to be reverenced as such. His profession is the best symbol of our life. Going from - toward; it is the history of every one of us. - Henry David Thoreau

All the pathos and irony of leaving one's youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time. - Paul Fussell

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. - Lin Yutang

All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien