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galleries, is a definite stop if you’re at all interested in Indian art as there are also 11th- and 12th-century handicrafts and Rajasthani, Mughal, and Deccan paintings. One of the buildings in this complex is the beautifully renovated Museum Theatre, where you can sometimes catch a dance or a music performance. While in Egmore, pop into St. Andrew’s Kirk (off Periyar E.V.R. High Rd., northeast of Egmore Station, Egmore; 044/2561-2608; daily 9am–5pm)—inspired by London’s St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. Andrew’s steeple rises 50m (164 ft.) into the air; you can climb this to reach a small balcony for a good city view. Alternatively, head south to Khader Nawaz Khan Road for some retail therapy.

NORTHERN CHENNAI A tour to admire George Town’s grand architectural colonial heritage—the main reason to venture north—can mostly be covered on foot (heat allowing)—best on a Sunday when traffic is at a minimum.

Set aside a few hours to visit Fort St. George (Kamaraj Rd.)—the first bastion of British power in India, constructed in 1640. The cluster of gray and white colonial buildings with pillared neoclassical facades now houses the Tamil Nadu State Legislature and the Secretariat. Visit its Fort Museum ( 044/2567-1127; admission Rs 100; Sat–Thurs 10am–5pm; still camera without flash allowed with permission from tourist office; video camera extra fee) to see the collection of portraiture, oil paintings, sketches, vintage photographs, silverware and etchings that reveal the nature of colonial life in early Madras. In the compound you will also find Asia’s oldest existing Anglican church, St. Mary’s (daily 9:30am–5pm), incidentally where Yale University’s founder, Gov. Elihu Yale, was married. The church has numerous 17th- and 18th-century gravestones—look for the Latin memorial to Mrs. Elizabeth Baker (1652), believed to be the oldest British inscription in India.

Just north of the fort is the red-sandstone High Court (Mon–Sat 10am–5pm), built in the mid–19th century in the Indo-Saracenic style, and still in use today. Guided tours of the building take in the various courtrooms, many of which are remarkably decorated. Busy George Town, bounded by Rajaji Salai and N.S.C. Bose Road, was once known as “Black Town,” a racist appellation for a settlement occupied by East India Company textile workers who came from Andhra Pradesh in the mid-1600s (the name “Chennai,” incidentally, is derived from the name given to the area by the dyers and weavers who lived here: Chennapatnam). Today, George Town is a bustling collection of streets that should be explored on foot—but again, not a good idea in the middle of the day.

Tip: Fans of the iconic Enfield Bullet, a contemporary classic due to its looks rather than performance, may know that it is manufactured in a Chennai factory (18km/11 miles north of Anna Salai); you can arrange for a 90-minute tour of the factory, a highly recommended experience for motorbike enthusiasts or anyone with a yen for the nostalgic ( 044/4204-3300; www.royalenfield.com; Rs 500; Mon–Fri 9:30am–5:30pm). Ironically there are no Enfield tours of Tamil Nadu.

DAY TRIP TO THE SACRED CITY OF KANCHIPURAM

All of Kanchipuram’s roads lead to goparums, the unmistakable temple gateways that tower over you as you prepare to enter the sacred temples. This 2,000-year-old city of “a thousand temples”—also called Kanchi—is best seen as a day trip out of Chennai, or en route to Mamallapuram, and is (along with Srirangam’s temples, and the main temples in Thanjavore and Madurai) the top temple destination in the state. With a rich heritage, it’s famous as a seat of both Shaivaite and Vaishnavite devotion as well as for its exquisite silk saris. It was here that the Dravidian style really had its roots, and the sheer profusion of temples makes this an ideal place to get a feel for how South Indian temple architecture has developed over the centuries. The oldest structure in town is Kailasnath Temple (Putleri St.; 1.5km/3⁄4 mile out of the town center; daily 6am–12:30pm and 4–8pm), entered via a small gateway. Built by the same Pallava