Monday, July 03, 2006

Hills in Chennai - 1 - Chinna Malai

Hills in Chennai !!!! ?

If you think that I am out of my mind to talk about an hill in the City of Chennai, Sorry, I can show you many hills in Chennai.

This is the first part in the series - Hills in Chennai

Chinna Malai or Little Mount :

This hill is right in the heart of Chennai. Dont think I am joking. This hill is right on the Mount Road or Anna Salai , the arterial road of chennai. The bus stop next to saidapet on Mount Road is known as Chinna Malai or Little Mount and this is where you find this hill. You wont be able to see the hill from the road , but the entrance is there right on the road.



If you ask me where is the hill in the above photo, I would have to say that the church is constructed right on top of the hill. Oh, Do you call that a hill ? Thats why it is called as Little Mount or Chinna Malai. :-)

Before you are back from the shock that a hill is right on Mount Road, give me another chance to give you a bigger shock. Yes I can show you a Cave in chennai.
Whenever anybody says Caves and Chennai , it will be Mahabalipuram , but there is a cave right in the heart of chennai. It is there for you to see in this Chinnamalai.

The church on top of Chinna Malai



Inside view of the church



Entrance to the Cave :

This is the entrance to the Cave where St.Thomas was hiding.



Inside the cave :

This is the inside view of the cave.



Places to be seen in Chinna Malai:



Story of Chinna Malai:







The next hill in the series would be Parangi Malai or St.Thomas Mount.

Cheers
Megarajan

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was so wrongly thinking that you will eventually run out of big plces to blog about!... I was living a stone throw from chinna malai and yet I never knew these things!

Megarajan said...

Bala,

I suspected that you might not know about this. Its usually the case with everyone. Noone cares to check whats in their backyard.

About running out of places, I am confident that is never going to happen in my lifetime.

Subbaraman said...

Nice info, Mega. I have been to St.Thomas mount but not to Chinna malai. Though I've crossed it many times.
I also suggest you to visit Pamban Swami's Samadhi in Thiruvanmiyur.It is near to Kalakshetra.

Megarajan said...

Thanks subbu for the info ..
It has been added in my to see list.

SLN said...

Hi

A nice coverage of a little known place of Chennai. Most Chennai-ites know only the bus stop, I think

Cheers
SLN

Anonymous said...

For three years, used to come from Pallavaram, changeover to Adyar route from Chinna Malai. I must've spent hours in that bus stop.

There's a metal box huge transformer there. I used to sit on it... wonder if it's still around : )

Olee said...

Chinna Malai yayum periya newsa maathitiyae...

Megarajan said...

arivoli,

Every place in india has a history of more than 1000years. so dont underestimate the significance of any place.

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