Next stop, courtesy of another lengthy train ride, was perhaps India’s most impressive temple town. Madurai is one of the oldest cities in south Asia. Greek and Roman travellers wrote of its beauty and riches. Its wealth was garnered from its trade in silk, pearls and spices and provided money for the ruling Pandyan dynasty to build the Meenakshi-Sundareshwarar temple.
Nothing prepares you for this temple. We’d seen pictures of what we assumed was ‘the’ gopura (a pyramid shaped tower above the main shrine), only to find that the Meenakshi has 12 such towers.
Apparently on any day of the week no less than 15,000 people pass through its gates. There’s a constant stream of ceremonies, festivals, and processions, which take place in the temple and spill out onto the surrounding streets. Many of the ceremonies haven’t changed since Egyptian times.
We went in before 9am – always a good idea in India to visit early. It’s cooler and not as crowded. Rather than just being bystanders we bought flower garlands to place on the main shrines. Non-Hindus cannot enter but we asked a priest to place them for us and he blessed us and bought us gifts in return – jasmine and rose garlands. 
It made the visit extra special and we felt so welcome and included.
It was very moving and exhausting as well, given the scale of the place. Even with a map you could easily get lost. However we were lucky in one respect – they repaint it every few years and the last time was 2008. If we’d come last year, it would have been covered in scaffolding, which would have somewhat spoiled the effect.
