See the finest of Chola bronzes, and the colossal tower of the Brihadishwara Temple.
The Brihadishvara temple was built by Rajaraja I in c. 1010. The complex is entered via the earliest of the truly monumental towering gates (gopurams) and also contains a variety of smaller shrines, including the finely chiselled Subrahmanya (17th-century).
Marvel at the impressive Durbar Hall of the Royal Palace Complex while in the same compound, a small museum houses one of the world’s finest collections of antique Chola bronzes. The same traditional lost wax technique is still being used by modern artisans, who can be seen in action on a visit to a local bronze sculpture workshop in the nearby caster-artists’ village of Swamimalai.
