Travel Day 910 – Thanjavur (Tanjore), Tamil Nadu, INDIA
It was our only full day in Thanjavur (Tanjore) and we had two main items on the agenda, on the one hand we wanted to visit the Royal Palace and on the other the Brihadishwara Temple…
Great Living Chola Temple, Thanjavur
Since the Royal Palace was supposed to be open continuously, we decided to go there first and have a look around, but unfortunately it turned out to be quite boring. Some parts of the palace were off-limits and under renovation and other were smaller museums and separate tickets had to be bought. Nothing was actually really expensive, but there was also nothing really to be seen…
We ended up climbing on the lookout tower and sitting there for a long while, enjoying the views and the breeze above the steaming hot city in the middle of the day. Everything else around the palace was not really worth writing home about as well and only a stroll through some little alleys of the Old Town seemed fun and interesting. Once the day was finally coming to an end we finally managed to reach the temple and we were in for a big surprise…
UNESCO Temple in Thanjavur, India
Nothing in the book had mentioned how great this Brihadishwara Temple was, nor that it was a UNESCO World Heritage Site as one of the Great Living Chola Temples and we really couldn’t believe that we had wasted all day at the boring palace. This temple was simply amazing. It was actually an entire fortress and it was the main temple of the Chola Empire with many smaller temples around it and a huge courtyard to wander around. For us it was the best temple we had seen in quite a while, especially because no other tourists were around…
As Thanjavur once had been the capital of the mighty Chola Empire, only here at the Brihadishwara Temple it became obvious how great the city once must have been like. Not only the craftsmanship and all the little stone details were amazing to look at, but also the entire temple felt just a great zone of calmness in the otherwise busy and noisy city. For us it was simply amazing to sit there and watch the sun set while the spot lights came on and illuminated the main tower of the temple. In the background people were worshipping or praying and only some birds were flying around…
Brihadishwara Temple in Thanjavur
This really was a great place to be and for everyone coming to visit Thanjavur (Tanjore), this UNESCO enlisted Chola Temple should be the main reason to come into town and it should definitely be the first place to be visited and not the last. After all we were happy that we had stopped by in Thanjavur…
Find all Thanjavur photos here.
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