St. Thomas Mount - Chennai

I hail from the city of Chennai, which is in the southern part of India. I have spent most of my life around this small 300m high hillock named 'St. Thomas Mount'. According to history, St. Thomas, the Apostle of Christ came to Chennai and settled down in a cave in this hill. Eventually, he is believed to have been martyred in this hill, so it got its name.

In Tamil, this hillock is called as 'Parangi Malai'. When the British were ruling India, this area was dominated by Anglo Indians and that gave this hill, the tamil name, as Britishers were referred to as 'Parangiyars' and ' Malai' means hill. There is also another history, that a holy saint named 'Peeringi' lived here, so it got its name.

You can see the entire city of Chennai from this hill and for the most part of our childhood, this has been the greatest and cheapest site seeing place. Another attraction in this place is the view of entire runway of the Chennai Airport, so people come here, to see the planes taking off and landing.

There is also a small church built by the Portugese in 1523, dedicated to 'Mother Mary', situated on top of the hill. This shrine is believed to have been built on the place where St. Thomas was martyred. This Church boasts of some very old paintings and relics, which makes this place worth visiting. Also, this place was visited by Pope John Paul II in 1986, during his visit to India.

The top of the hill can be easily accessed by walk or by a drive.

This picture was taken on 4th January 2009, when my family along with some Campus recruits to my company went on small sight seeing trip in Chennai.