Rock Temples in Mamallapuram
We then stopped in Mamallapuram, which is a town half way between Chennai and Pondicherry, also on the coast. It's a temple beach town, whose highlights include the carvings of Arjuna's Penance, and an enormous rock boulder seemingly precariously balanced on a short cliff face. According to our guide a herd of elephants was enlisted to try and tip the rock but were not able. The tsunami even took a shot a few years ago, but didn't quite make it across the street to the temples and the balanced boulder.
According to our host, the Bay of Bengal has swallowed up quite a few temples over the years, and during the tsunami, as the water was receding from the coast to form the enormous wave, spectators could see the roofs of a few of the underwater marvels suddenly revealed, but just for a moment.