Vacations India offers tours to the beautiful city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. Also known as the "Temple City", Madurai owes its name to a famous legend, according to which, the day the city was to be named, Lord Shiva appeared and showered nectar from his hair on the town. Thus, Madurai received its name from mathuram, which means "sweetness" in Tamil. It is the largest city in Tamil Nadu, after Chennai and is located on the banks of River Vaigai.

Madurai is one of the oldest cities in South India and has one of the most splendid as well as beautiful temples in India. So, if you are visiting South India and Tamil Nadu in particular, make sure your Holiday package tour includes Madurai. You should definitely take time to visit Meenakshi Sundareswarar, the temple around which the whole city of Madurai is built. The Meenakshi temple extends over an area of about 65000 sq m. and is more or less a city of its own. The temple was built by Kulasekar Pandya but the credit of making the temple magnificent and beautiful as it stands today goes to the Nayaks, who ruled Madurai from the 16th century to the 18th Century. Sundareswarar (an incarnation of Lord Shiva) and Meenakshi (his fish eyed spouse) are enshrined in this twin temple. Not only is the temple decorated with fascinating paintings and exquisite sculptures but it also has the "Hall of Thousand pillars" or the "Ayiramkaal Mandapam". Each pillar in the hall is adorned with life-like sculptures and in the outermost corridors are the musical pillars, which when tapped produce musical notes. All these features make the Meenakshi temple in Madurai an interesting place for vacations and holidaying in India.

Another popular place in Madurai, Tamil Nadu is Mariamman Teppakulam. It is located about 5 kilometers east of Meenakshi Temple. It is a square-shaped tank spread over the area of about 16 acres. In January/February a festival is held to celebrate the birthday of King Thirumalai Nayak, who built this beautiful tank. During this "Float festival" the deities of Sundareswarar and Meenakshi are placed in a float, decorated with pretty flowers and lights. The float is taken around the tank while traditional music in the background sets the mood and imparts a dream like quality to the whole scene, which is why thousands of tourists from all over the world come to see this.

Thirumalai Nayak is another names that features in most south Indian packages. This palace also located in Madurai is about 1.5 Kms from the Meenakshi temple. It was built in 1636 by King Thirumalai Nayak, whose name the palace bears,with the help of an Italian architect.

Besides all the above-mentioned tourist attractions in Madurai, there are various other sites that you can visit in Madurai, depending on the holiday package you choose. Such as, Alagar Koil (a Vishnu temple), Thirupparankundram temple, both of which are usually included in South India Temple Tour packages and the Gandhi Museum, another favorite of the visitors in Tamil Nadu.

Vacations India is the prefect source for all your travel needs in India and provides all the information you may require in planning out a prefect vaction for yourself and your loved ones.