Tamil Nadu is one of the southern state of India. Tamil is its language and it has unique culture and heritage. There are several tourist spots around here. Most of the international visitors are visiting Chennai, Trichy, Madurai and Tanjore. Apart from these famous tourist places, there are several interesting places around here. Here below, you can find some of them:

The guests with an eye for momentous places can hardly miss Gingee (122 km from Chennai by rail). Its celebrated fortifications, which lengthen over three hills, were built seven hundred years ago, soon after the Chola Empire. Gingee was once a monopoly of the Vijayanagar Chieftains, later of the Marathas under Shivaji and, in 1698, the Mughals made it the command center of the Arcot Army. In the 18^th century, the French captured it and held it for eleven years.

The fort included two temples and a mosque-besides Kaliyana Mahall, which is a court hall-a sports center and a granary.  The most impressive is the Rajagiri Fort, which stands 152 meters high.  Gingee has been the prospect of many battles over the centuries.  It has become renowned through a ballad which illustrates the heroic exploits of Raja Desingh (Tej singh), who was chief of the Fort under the Nawab of Arcot in 1714.  The ballads in honor of Desing and his friend Ahamed Khan are popular even today.

Vellore stands on the banks of River Palar and has a fort dating back to the 18^th century.  It was the panorama of many a historic blockade and battle, the last of which took place during the First War of Indian Independence in 1857.  The temple, which is dilapidated and no longer used for worship quite some time has been with full of activities and worships now, has some beautiful sculptures on its ceiling.

Sixty eight km from Chidambaram, on the banks of river Cauveri, situated the antique city of Kumbakkonam, in the district of Thanjavur.  A city of great ancient times, it is studded with 18 shrines and has also Math of Sri Sankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakodi Peetam.  The sacred bathing carnival, which is distinguished once in twelve years at the Sacred Mahamaham Tank, draws numerous pilgrims.  The very old town has managed to safeguard a great deal of its old-world charisma.  The Kumbakonam   college is situated on the banks of the river.  The betel from this place is the choice of connoisseurs all over South India.

Thiruvaiyaru also positioned on the banks of the river Cauvery, and it is 10km by road from Thanjavur.  Sri Thiyagaraja, the renowned saint and originator who lived in the 19^th century, attained his Samadhi here.  Thiyagaraja composed more than a thousand songs which are the very heart of Carnatic Music.  Every year in January, a vast congregation of musicians and music lovers assembles here to respect the reminiscence of the great composer.

Most people who visit Tamil Nadu make it a point to visit Rameshwaram.  But pilgrimage to Rameshwaram is absolute without a bath in the sea at Dhanuskodi, the meeting point of the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean.  Dhanushkodi is positioned at the southern edge of the island on which Rameshwaram stands.  Rameshwaram is the end of the line of Southern Railway, and Dhanushkodi is the landing point for passengers from Sri Lanka, with which it is connected by a commuter boat service.

Birds, not of celebrated assortment but gorgeous all the same, are found in immense assembles at the Vedanthangal Sanctuary.  It is just 85 km by road from Chennai the capital of Tamil Nadu.  Each and every year, after the rainy season, thousands of marine birds, such as storks, herons and flamingoes, come to this attractive spot to breed on the trees surrounding a lake.  They come mainly from the temperate zone.

Pitchavaram, very near to the Chidambaram, is a costal but has a very dissimilar appeal.  Here there are some 3,000 canals flanked with thick mangrove plants, and one can go in a foxhole down them.  Pitchavaram is still primitive, and largely unidentified as an astonishing, stunning and individualistic alternative.

Kuttralam or Courtallam, on the Palani array of the Western Ghats near the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, is 58 km by road from Tirunelvely.  The waterfalls are fashioned by a sharp three-stage drop of about 91 meters in the Siddhar aru.  The water is supposed to have therapeutic properties.  Near the falls, there is a charming temple devoted to Kuttralanathar.  The other waterfalls in this area are: Five falls, Tiger falls, Old kuttralam falls Sitraruvi falls and honey falls. Another place of interest is the Chitra Sabai, a stunning temple.

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