Viluppuram is 170 KM from Chennai. There are many prehistorical and historical places around Viluppuram. Prehistory sites are primarily rock art sites. Historical sites include Jain heritage and Chola heritage. We will be covering all elements as a day trip from Chennai over the weekend.
This packaged is a 'Shared or Travelpooling' trip wherein we will facilitate the trip to reach Viluppuram where the trip curator will join the curate the trip. This is a first attempt to cover themes like Rock art, Chola Heritage, and Jain rock cut temples.
Itinerary:
Day 1
- Early morning, board shared AC vehicle from Chennai to Villupuram and travel (160 km)
- Enroute, stop for breakfast and pack something for lunch at own cost.
- Reach Viluppuram, Archaeologist to meet and greet the group
- Cover Kilvalai – Alambadi – Settavarai
- Travel back in the same shared AC vehicle from Viluppuram to Chennai with fine memories with a stop for coffee / tea and dinner at own cost.
Kizhvalai
The site is locally called as Ratthakudaikkal which means the images have depicted by thickened red ochre in the rock. The paintings have found in three different rocky areas. Among them, one is too difficult to visit, and another one is weak in condition. The third one contains the majority of the paintings, and they are explicit. The images of human and animal, geometric and non-geometric symbols have depicted in thickened red ochre. The human images have depicted in silhouetted that are drawn by the thick brush. A few pieces of Iron slag have also found within the rock shelter.
Alambadi
The site is locally known as Koozhankal paarai which means the pebble rock. In the site, a big sized isolated boulder is standing and the top portion of the boulder has placed over another one rock. It is almost looking like a shelter. In the boulder, the images of reptiles, domestic and wild animals have depicted in thickened red ochre.
Settavarai
The site is locally known as Ayyanarmalai. The paintings are found on the top of the hills. The images are painted with polychrome which means both red and white ochre used for the paintings but few paintings are depicted only in red ochre. The images of domestic and wild animals have depicted in the shelter. The domestic animal is a cow which is depicted with thickened red ochre whereas the wild animals are deer, wild boar and hyena which have depicted in red and white ochre. Among the images, handprints and the cows with X-ray motifs are noteworthy in this site.
