Madurai Meenakshi Temple

"The Meenakshi Temple city of Madurai is situated at a length of 307 miles southeasterly of Madras on the water track blood. This is definitely the oldest port of Southmost India, genuinely representing Dravidic civilization. Indweller scholars somebody compared it to Athense of Greece. It was in the onetime the seat of the Dravidian Establishment (the Tamil Sangam) .... It is estimated that there are 33 meg carvings in the Madurai temple. The Meenakshi Temple stands in the midpoint of the municipality and main roads run roughly symmetrical to the quartet sides. An illustrator has described the architecture as follows: "The architecture is nigh purely Dravidic - its characteristics being the pyramidal towers of stupendous degree overlooking the surrounding genre for miles around; the rectangular enclosures one within the new same a Prc box; the use of the vapid roof and the full absence of the curve or dome; yearn galleries interspersed with sculptured pillars..."

"Gopuram, in Southwestward Asiatic architecture, is the entryway gateway to the Asiatic tabernacle inclosure. Relatively lesser in the earlier punctuation, the gopuras grew in size from the mid-12th century until the prodigious gateways came to reign the temple gordian, quite superior the primary place for architectural improvement.."