Mamallapuram | 02 Sep 2019

Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu is expected to be the venue for the second India-China informal summit.

Besides holding talks, the leaders of both countries are likely to make a visit to the ancient monuments in the area.
- The monuments in the area have been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- During the first informal summit in Wuhan (in China) in April 2018, the leaders had made a visit to the Hubei provincial museum.
Recently, Mamallapuram had also hosted the Defence Expo 2018, an annual event of the Union Defence Ministry.

Mamallapuram, also called Mahabalipuram or Seven Pagodas, is a town that lies along the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal, 60 km south of Chennai.
The town’s religious centre was founded by a 7^th-century Hindu Pallava King—Narasimhavarman, also known as Mamalla—for whom the town was named.
It contains many surviving 7^th- and 8^th-century Pallava temples and monuments, chief of which are the sculptured rock relief popularly known as “Arjuna’s Penance,” or “Descent of the Ganges,” a series of sculptured cave temples, and a Shiva temple on the seashore.
- The town’s Five Rathas, or monolithic temples, are the remnants of seven temples, for which the town was known as Seven Pagodas. The entire assemblage collectively was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.