Trichy -- the Rock Fort

The Rock Fort is a huge rock 83 meters high just south of the Kaveri River in Trichy. It must have been used militarily in the past, but it consists of only temples now. The first one, in a cave, was built about 580CE. It was militarized by the Nayak dynasty during the 17th and 18th centuries. To climb it, you start by climbing a staircase in a cave inside the rock. The staircase passes by two temples carved from the rock before coming out into daylight and continuing the ascent to a fairly level lookout terrace, then a last climb to the temple dedicated to Ganesh at the top.


Rock Fort	Temple cut out of the rock

Relief in cave-temple, showing Shiva receiving the goddess Ganga on a strand of his hair	Out of the cave and still climbing

Ganesh Temple at the top, tourist lower down	View over Trichy

Tourist above the terrace	Another tourist

Gopurams of Srirangam Temple visible across the Kaveri	A kite glides slowly above the terrace

Back down from the rock, one sees a temple cut into the base of the rock. It lies at the end of a lane where we met some people who had removed all their belongings from their house in order to paint it. They invited us inside to see it and it was lovely and clean. We chatted a while and learned that the man is a photographer. Our guide took a picture of us all. Very nice meeting.


This temple carved from the rock houses some nice wall carvings.

A narrow lane	Moving the furniture out

Doing the honors of the newly painted home	The proprietors and tourists

Outside, we met an elephant in the street, maybe coming home from the temple.


	An elephant in the street
A colorful doorway

Sri Jambukeshwara Temple - mandapa	Gopuram of Sri Jambukeshwara Temple

Beautiful mandapa	And another temple elephant

On to Madurai.

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