Important Facts For Prelims
Mamallapuram
- 02 Sep 2019
- 2 min read
Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu is expected to be the venue for the second India-China informal summit.
- Besides holding talks, the leaders of both countries are likely to make a visit to the ancient monuments in the area.
- The monuments in the area have been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- During the first informal summit in Wuhan (in China) in April 2018, the leaders had made a visit to the Hubei provincial museum.
- Recently, Mamallapuram had also hosted the Defence Expo 2018, an annual event of the Union Defence Ministry.
About Mamallapuram
- Mamallapuram, also called Mahabalipuram or Seven Pagodas, is a town that lies along the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal, 60 km south of Chennai.
- The town’s religious centre was founded by a 7th-century Hindu Pallava King—Narasimhavarman, also known as Mamalla—for whom the town was named.
- It contains many surviving 7th- and 8th-century Pallava temples and monuments, chief of which are the sculptured rock relief popularly known as “Arjuna’s Penance,” or “Descent of the Ganges,” a series of sculptured cave temples, and a Shiva temple on the seashore.
- The town’s Five Rathas, or monolithic temples, are the remnants of seven temples, for which the town was known as Seven Pagodas. The entire assemblage collectively was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.
