Madurai, situated at Vaigai River, is the ancient city of Tamil Nadu and it is widely famous for fourteen colourful gopurams (gateway towers). These towers are temples of goddess Meenakshi Amman. It is a small city with a 148 km2 area and only 101m of elevation from the sea level. The Dravidian-style temple is an attraction among pilgrims and millions of people visit this temple to pray for a healthy life.
Madurai is called the sleepless city of Tamil Nadu and the reason is more than 30% of sleep-deprived people. As pilgrims keep visiting this city throughout the year, the enormous activity during the day and night makes this city sleepless. Locals call this place “Thoonga Nagaram,” which means ‘The Ever-Awakened City.’ You can find people calling this city by different names, so don’t get confused. The old name for this city is Madura, which was until 1949.