My only visit to Palani happened in 1985 when I was in Coimbatore. One of the 6 places for lord Murugan and my favorite. There is also vadapalani (north palani) in Chennai for those who are not aware of temples of murugan in TN. BJP MP Murugan also requested Erode - Dharapuram line which was proposed several years ago to link Palani. If any of you want to visit Palani it is easily accessible from Coimbatore or Madurai. The similar temple of this kind outside the state I saw was Sharada mandir in Maihar. Palani is a great crowd puller like Thiruchendur, Tiruttani, Srirangam, Natarajar temple (Chidambaram), big temple (Tanjore) in the state. If we talk about Trichy rockfort ganesa temple is its icon which was constructed several years ago and where tipu sultan hide from enemy during one of the war. The...
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other attractions of Trichy are Srirangam, Thiruvanaikoil, Samayapuram and recently built baba temple which is also located on the way to Samayapuram. Trichy is also famous for Kallanai dam which was built by king Karikalan of Chola dynasty almost 2000 years ago. This is located 15 kms away from Trichy on the way to Tanjore. Best view of Trichy can be had from top of rockfort temple. The best time to visit this is evening as other times it is hot and tough to walk the steps in heat. People can be seen sitting on the rock near the last segment where steps begin for going to temple in top. Madurai along with Trichy is considered the best food zone in the state as these two are famous for several old and stunning foods and hotels.