Must-see attractions in Tamil Nadu

Dedicated to Murugan, this nondescript temple 3km northeast of town affords beautiful panoramas of the surrounding hills and the plains miles below.

Pondy's lighthouse was completed in the 1830s and functioned for more than a century before being replaced in 1979.

Badly damaged by the 2004 tsunami, this 14th-century seafront temple is now repainted in kaleidoscopic colours.

Within the fort grounds stands this handsome, yellow-walled church (1846). Only open Sunday.