The Meenakshi temple complex is a city temple in Madurai. It is one of the largest and certainly one of the most ancient in Madurai. The soaring and exquisitely carved towers enclose the temple dedicated to Meenakashi temple in Madurai. The south gateway contains the twin temples of Shiva and Meenakshi and is about nine storeys high in Madurai.

While the temple originated in times to which no date can be assigned, the structures that are standing today date mostly from the twelfth to the eighteenth century. They occupy a vast space, 258 m by 241m. At every turn there is superb sculpture, magnificent architecture.

The stonewalls and towers of the Meenakshi temple in Madurai rise out of the teeming streets of the city center. From her rambling maze-like palaces the Goddess Meenakshi presides. It is said that her image is carved out of a single emerald.

Various kings have renovated the temple, adding convoluted corridors, larger-than-life sculptures, polishing and honing an abode suitable for Meenakshi, the Goddess Shakti herself, born as daughter of a Pandya king. According to the legend of this temple the marriage of the goddess to Shiva actually took place in Madurai and is still celebrated every summer with great pomp and gaiety.

The south gateway is an ideal route for entering the twin temples of Shiva and Meenakshi.On looking up you would see the four mythical beasts called Yalis glaring downwards. The eyes would glide from the yellows to the flashes of pure greens, blues, and whites on the 150 feet South Gopuram. It is beautifully proportioned, nine stories high and crowded with griming gargoyles and gryphons that perch on the ornate curved edges. Between them stand or gently sit sedate gods and goddesses.

If we compare them with the statues of classical Greece we would find that the ancient Dravidian culture of South India have also been painted in brilliant colors.

• Guruvayoor Temple
• Kalpathy Temple
• Mahabalipuram Temple
• Meenakshi Temple
• Tirupati Temple