Mamallapuram

Mamallapuram or Mahabalipuram is a tourist town 60 km south of Chennai made well-known by its stone carvings. The most famous memorial is the Shore Temple: when lit by moonlight, it is one of the most fine-looking locations in the region. The best instance to visit is November to March.
It is the major, and possibly only worthwile, tourist attraction of historical value close to Chennai (Madras), India's fourth biggest city. The East Coast Road has made it easily reachable - just about an hour from the city. Unfortunately, the complete strip is now a mess of restaurants, resorts, amusement parks, people, discarded plastic and chaotic traffic. At one time you could see the Bay of Bengal almost all the way to M'puram, but, there is so much growth that the ocean is glimpsed only as you get close to M'puram.
Mamallapuram itself was receiving run down over the last decade with very patchy efforts at keeping the monuments preserved. This has altered in the lst few years with the Shore Temple being included in the UNESCO heritage project. The environment have been made much nicer, but, there has been a lot of wind and water erosion on the temple carvings with many of them having undergone loss of detail over the years. Sort of too little. too late, but still, better than not anything. Be ready to fight you way through clutches of gypsies, beggars, guides, snakes charmers and so on, all of which is an essential part of the experience and not to be frowned upon. The total thing would be bland without them. A nuisance, but harmless.It is a nice two-hour detour on the road to Pondicherry, by far and away a more attractive place to visit.