Mamallapuram

As it was Election Day in Maharashtra, Paul and I decided to have a mini-holiday weekend to the seaside town of Pondicherry. Along the way, we stopped in Mamallapuram about 50 km South of Chennai. Mamallapuram is known for its monolithic shrines and rock-cut cave temples that are scattered over a seaside landscape also dotted with boulders. Since I had just visited Hampi a few months ago, Mamallapuram was not as impressive to me, however Paul and I still enjoyed our brief 60 minute detour en route to Pondi.

Here we at the Arjuna's Penance relief-carving stop looking at, well, one of the enormous boulders balancing on this slippery rock surface. As you can see, some local school children are using it as a slide.
Below is Arjuna's Penance known to be the largest relief carving on Earth.

We then went onto the Five Rathas, a cluster or temples named for the five Pandava brothers of Mahabharata.

Of course, Paul wanted to pose with the elephant . . .

Next, we drove over to Shore Temple. The Shore Temple overlooks the Bay of Bengal. It has endured centuries of salt water battering its lovely exterior along with strong ocean winds. However, it is still beautiful to see. It dates back to early 8th century and is believed to be the oldest temple in Southern India.

Bay of Bengal . . .

. . . and the Shore Temple
Here I am posing with Nandi bulls that guard the surrounding area of the temple.

Now, off to Pondicherry!