Chennai is the fourth largest
metropolis in India and the hub of South India.
On your Chennai Tour you can explore the beaches,
historic churches and monuments of Chennai, like
Fort St George on the Coromandel Coast. Enjoy
the South Indian flavor of Chennai
Chennai in South India, is a vibrant city ever
growing, expanding and changing every year. On
your Chennai tour you will discover that Chennai's
culture is distinct from that of north India.
Explore the music, dance and other art forms of
the South, on tours to Chennai. Chennai is a city
where the traditional and the modern blend in
life everywhere. From traditional vegetarian fair
to fast food, from nine-yard saris to the latest
in fashion, from ancient temple architecture to
modern high-rises, from classical music and dance
to discos throbbing to heady beats, Chennai has
them all and many more vivid contrasts that you
can discover on your Chennai tour.
The region of Chennai was called Tondaimandalam
in earlier days and had its military headquarters
at Puzhal, which is now a small and rather insignificant
village on the outskirts of the city. Modern Chennai
grew out of a small village, when in 1639 a fishing
hamlet called Chennaipatnam was selected by early
English merchants of the East India Company as
a site for their settlement. Chennai has attracted
a vast assortment of people right from seafarers,
spice traders and cloth merchants over the period.
The sixteenth century saw the arrival of the
Portuguese, followed by the Dutch trading companies.
The Portuguese established a fort, Sao Tome or
San Thome in 1522, pushing back the ancient Pallava
port of Mylapore. By 1612 the Dutch established
themselves in Pulicat to the North. Founded in
1639 on land given by the Raja of Chandragiri,
the last representative of the Vijayanagar rulers
of Hampi to British traders, a small fort was
built at a fishing settlement in 1644 and a town,
which subsequently came to known as George Town,
grew in the area of Fort St. George.
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