Mynashi Temple:

Wow. I'm not even sure where to begin. The first time I saw this grouping of temples (Yes, it's plural), was when I was eating a delicious dinner on a rooftop overlooking Madurai. Even though it was night, there was lights set up around to capture the bright colors of the temples. Even though they looked amazing from far away, the experience of seeing them up close was a hundred times better.

 

A Close up of all the carvings that make up the temples

Throughout my time in India I have seen quite a few temples and giant monuments but none of them compare to the temple I got to see just last week. It's set up as a bunch of connecting temples.

Even though this picture didn't load properly, if you look really hard you can make out how all of the temples are connected and there is an inner courtyard type of thing.

Inside one of the temples was a sort of museum. (And once again I'm struck by how much foreigners more foreigners have to pay. It wasn't as bad as at "the butterball" but it was a dollar more). Rows and rows of carved pillars were inside the museum styled temple and they were all intricately designed. I wish I had been able to take pictures that could truly capture how beautiful it all was. There were walls covered in the stories of Minashi (a Goddess) and her husband.

I noticed that on a lot of statues people had thrown red powder over the gods and goddesses. Hopefully I will learn why later!

As we walked to the next temples, everything was SUPER bright. The ceilings were painted green, yellow, pink, red, blue, and purple.

Sorry about the colors not working!

Although this is pretty dark, you can still kind of see how detailed the ceiling is and how the hallways look as a whole. I just wish the picture didn't look so skewed.

 
In some of the other temples we got to see people praying and lighting candles in honor of the gods/goddesses. I learned a bit about the traditional mens outfits since a lot of men were in matching attire.

Here is an example of some of the shops. I hope to go back sometime later and do some shopping.

There were also lots of brightly colored shops. I really wanted to stop and check all of them out but there wasn't enough time. They were all lit up and very colorful which fit with how vibrant the whole setting of the temples are.

Here are some people praying.

This shop was actually inside the temples. (the rest were slightly outside or in between the temples).

A sign that said no foreigners past this point.