When everyone booking tickets to watch Ponniyin Selvan: II, we were packing our bags for historical Cholas and Pandiyas temple trip between 29th April - 1st May. It was a long pending must watch place in our travel list and we finally made the trip.
As a regular habit, we usually start our trips by 6AM from home and pack our food for breakfast/lunch. We live in south part of Chennai and reaching Grand Southern Trunk Road is easy. There is a drastic change in traffic recent times. School vacation/long weekend, made things worse almost till Ulunthoorpettai. 7 out of 10 vehicles in the highway was cars and struggle to pass the multi-axle trucks and buses where they hardly maintain lane discipline. We stopped around 9AM for a quick breakfast and started again as the temple inner sanctum closing time was 12pm.
We reached Gangaikonda Cholapuram by 11:30AM and its very hot outside almost 40 degrees. One major issue visiting this historical monuments in summer time that too at noon is you can't set your foot in the ground more than 5 seconds. Pavers are carved out from rock and it was boiling. Either we have to walk quickly or run. We brought socks for the kid so managed it. There was reasonable number of tourists and we are the last person to watch deity before the authorities close the sanctum at 12pm.
Source: Google/Wikipedia - Not a historical person but like to see the historical monuments so referred these pages.
Gangaikonda Cholapuram is a village located in Ariyalur district, Tamil Nadu. It became the capital of the Chola dynasty in c. 1025 by Chola emperor Rajendra I, and served as the capital for around 250 years. It has been recognised as a World Heritage site by UNESCO. The translation of the city's name may be split into Gangai (Ganga) Konda (Obtained) Chola (Chola) Puram (City). It is now a small village, its past eminence only remembered by the existence of the Temple.
Visited the temple for an hour and mesmerized with the architectural design and construction which was made 1000 years back.
Beautiful Entrance
Ancient Well
Monument from different angles
Old Sculptures and Nandi
Parting Shot
Had our lunch under some tree shade inside temple compound and rested for sometime before we start to our next destination. Ariyalur to Thanjavur is 90 mins drive and road looks recently laid. Very minimal traffic, Curd Rice for lunch, Cruise control and Good suspension setup was singing lullaby to my ears
![Smile](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.png)
and we reached Rams Inn by 4pm. This place is less than 4kms from the historical monumnent Thanjai Arulmigu Peruvudaiyar Temple otherwise called as Thanjai Periya Kovil (Thanjavur Big Temple). Parked the vehicle safely inside the hotel premise.
We took auto to the temple and reached around by 5:30pm. First thing you notice is the magnificent temple structure. It gave goose bumps when I saw fist time in person and you cannot miss the Gopuram (Temple tower) from anywhere near the surroundings. Previously had this kind of experience when we visited Eiffel Tower. But both are different in their way be it construction or age. One good thing is we don't need to worry about our foot like before as it is sunset time
![Cool](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/cool.png)
. There are lot of tourists from different parts of India/World to visit this Monumental beauty.
Peruvudaiyar Kovil built in a Chola architectural style located on the south bank of the Cauvery river in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. Built by Chola emperor Rajaraja I between 1003 and 1010 CE, the temple is a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It took 45 mins in queue to visit the inner sanctum of the temple and had a good time seeing around sculptures of the heritage temple. By the time we reached the entrance after circling around, there was Sittirai Thiruvizha (Cultural Festival) programmes started. Spent an hour listening to live performance of Devaram and Thiruvasagam, later Bharatanatyam by Thanjavur Sinnamelam team. Had dinner in nearby restaurant and purchased Thanjavur thalayatti bommai (Doll) and went back to the hotel. I had a plan that if I can wake up early next day then I should visit the Temple alone once again in early morning so that I can avoid the crowd and take pictures.
Next day, got up early, refreshed and took the Civic to visit temple. Opening time is 6AM and I was there on-time but I believe temple opened some 15-20 mins before as I was able to see good amount of tourists/worshippers in the early morning hours. Spent more than an hour peacefully, captured some pictures and returned to hotel.
The Entrance with 2 layers
The BIG Temple and its Nandi carved out of single rock
Ancient pillars with Tamil Vatteluttu from 1000CE
Some irresponsible tourist left his signature
Architectural Beauty
![Historical Temples Visit in Tamil Nadu-19tbt.jpg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/travelogues/2465480d1687296275t-historical-temples-visit-tamil-nadu-19tbt.jpg)