Southern India is dotted with places of religious interest. There are several towns that are referred to as the temple towns owing to the grandeur of the temples they are home to.

Rameshwaram is an island- of Lord Rama's temple at Tamil Nadu is a terrific destination. It is one of the major pilgrimages for the Hindus in South India. The religious island is spread in an area of 61.8 square kilometers and happens to be in the shape of a conch. The Ramanatha Swamy Temple occupies major area of Rameshwaram. The masterpiece of Dravidian architecture boasts of the largest temple corridor in India. Different rulers built the Ramanatha Swamy Temple over a period of time starting from the 12th century. The temple comprises of twenty-two wells where the taste of the water of each well is different from the other. The waters of the wells are believed to possess medicinal properties. You may join the various festivities at the Ramanatha Swamy Temple of Rameshwaram like Thai Amavasai, Masi Sivarathiri, Thirukalyanam and Mahalaya Amavasai.

You can spend the entire day visiting the temples in Kanchipuram. The most important of the temples is the Ekambareswarar temple that was built by the Pallavas. Later the Chola and Vijayanagar kings reconstructed it. Lord Shiva is the presiding deity at the temple as Prithvi (earth). Earth is one of the five basic elements of this physical world. The temple is spread across 20-acres of land and the 58.5 m high Gopuram in the south are its remarkable features. The temple is 11 stories high and this makes it one of the tallest temple towers in South India. You will appreciate the beautiful sculptures of the temple as much as they are by the other tourists. The other visit will be to the 8th century Vaikunta Perumal Temple that was built by Nandivarma Pallava. Further there is the Varadaraja Temple and the Kailasanathar Temple too.

In the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh there is the Tirupathi temple. The temple is believed to be the busiest in the world, eclipsing even Rome, Jerusalem and Mecca in the number of pilgrims visiting it.

Thanjavur in South India has as many as 74 temples but the most superb is the Sri Brihadeswara temple. The temple dedicated to Nandi, the Bull is a masterpiece of the captivating Chola architecture. The mount of Lord Shiva i.e. Nandi has been made from a single granite rock. Similarly the dome of the temple rests on one granite rock. The Chola king Raja Raja I built the Brihadeswara temple way back in the 10th century AD. The architecture of the temple is simply put beautiful and wondrous the best amongst the many in the temple town of Thanjavur. The Brihadeswara temple stands 216 ft. tall but it has been built in such a manner that throughout the day its shadow never falls on the ground! The big temple is home to the 12 feet tall, 191/2 feet long, 81/4 feet wide Nandi weighing approximately 25 tons.

You may also visit the Shore Temple and the five rathas (chariots) in Mahabalipuram of South India. These structures are the forerunners of the Dravidian style of architecture that evolved later. In Mahabalipuram there are the excavated rock temples that are anomalously called "Mandapas". The Mahishamardhani and the Adivaraha are the two most remarkable of them. The Mahishamardhani contains on walls facing each other two of the most superb sculptural relief's known to Indian art, both connected with each other in their common scriptural source. Rocks have been scooped out to make cave temples and rock-cut shrines. This singular feature enhances its magnificence manifold. Rock surfaces have been filled with bas-reliefs and panels crowded with a cavalcade of men, gods and animals, their figures and movements breathtakingly realistic.