India · State of Tamil Nādu
Where to Stay in Kanchipuram, State of Tamil Nādu
Kanchipuram is a city of Tamil Nadu in southern India, the City of a Thousand Temples, an ancient holy capital famed for its great shrines and its golden silk sarees.
Find your area →
Where to stay in Kanchipuram
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Where you stay in Kanchipuram turns on the temples or the town. The streets around the great temples keep the shrines, the tanks, and the silk shops within a walk, and staying near the temples suits anyone here for the pilgrimage. The gopurams tower over the lanes.
Temple bells ring at dawn. Out toward the fields and the weavers' streets, the town gives way to the silk looms, the temple tanks, and the paddy plains beyond. A room out of town trades the lanes for the quiet fields, the weaving villages, and the wide Tamil plain.
The temples rise above the town. Stay by the temples for the pilgrimage, or out for the weavers. From the weavers' edge it is only a short run back to the middle of Kanchipuram.
About Kanchipuram
Kanchipuram is the temple city of the Tamil south.
What is Kanchipuram known for?
On the plain of Tamil Nadu by the Vegavathi river, it grew as the old capital of the Pallava kings and one of the seven holy cities of the Hindus, and it keeps the ancient stone temple of Kailasanathar, the towering gopuram of the great Shiva temple, the weavers and their gold-threaded silk sarees, and the many old shrines that give the town its name. The temple towers rise over the town. Looms clack in the weavers' streets.
What are the main landmarks in Kanchipuram?
The temple of Kailasanathar is the pride of Kanchipuram. The old Pallava shrine of carved sandstone, oldest of the city's temples, stands among gardens on the town's edge, the emblem of the city, out of downtown. A great tower marks the Shiva temple.
The soaring gopuram of Ekambareswarar rises over the streets, while the Vishnu temple, the goddess shrine of Kamakshi, and the silk-weavers' quarter mark the country around Kanchipuram.
What is the history of Kanchipuram?
Kanchipuram is one of the seven holy cities of India. For more than a thousand years it has been a place of pilgrimage, sacred to Shiva and to Vishnu, and one of the seven cities where Hindus seek release. The Pallava kings made it great.
From Kanchipuram the Pallava dynasty ruled the Tamil land and carved the first great stone temples of the south, whose style spread across India and beyond the sea. The city was a seat of learning and faith. Buddhists, Jains, and Hindus alike kept schools and shrines in Kanchipuram, and great temples rose under the Cholas and the kings of Vijayanagara.
The looms wove the finest silk. Its weavers made the famous Kanchipuram sarees of heavy silk and gold thread, worn at weddings across the land, and the city grew as a place of temples and silk, keeping its shrines, its gopurams, and its looms. The pilgrims still throng the temples.
Kanchipuram keeps its thousand temples on the Tamil plain.
Where is Kanchipuram?
Kanchipuram lies in the northeast of Tamil Nadu, on the flat coastal plain inland from Chennai. The city sits on the low dry plain by the Vegavathi river, in a warm land of paddy and palm, with tanks and temples spread through the town and the wide fields of the Palar valley around. The plain runs flat and warm.
Temple tanks shine in the sun.
What is the climate of Kanchipuram?
Heat and dry tropical air hold over Kanchipuram for most of the year. Scorching summers and warm winters hold on the plain, with fierce heat before the rains and a wet spell in the northeast monsoon. The summer sun beats hard.
Monsoon rains green the fields.
How do you get to Kanchipuram?
Kanchipuram lies in the north of Tamil Nadu, on the road and rail west of Chennai. Trains and the highway run to it across the plain from Chennai and the coast, and roads lead on to the temple towns of the south. Pilgrims crowd the temples.
Chennai lies east down the road.
Good for
More cities in State of Tamil Nādu
Updated August 2026