Tourism Wheel: Shore Temple, the shore of the Bay of Bengal, Tamil Nadu in India.

The Shore Temple (built in 700–728 AD) is so named because it overlooks the shore of the Bay of Bengal. It is a structural temple, built with blocks of granite, dating from the 8th century AD.

Shore Temple

It was built on a promontory sticking out into the Bay of Bengal at Mahabalipuram, a village south of Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu in India.
At the time of its creation, the village was a busy port during the reign of Narasimhavarman II of the Pallava dynasty.
As one of the Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram, it has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984.
It is one of the oldest structural (versus rock-cut) stone temples of South India.

Tourist Attraction :

Shivaskanda Panel with Shiva, Uma and their son Skanda
The temple has a garbhagriha in which the deity, Sivalinga, is enshrined, and a small mandapa surrounded by a heavy outer wall with little space between for circumambulation. At the rear are two shrines facing in opposite directions. The inner shrine dedicated to Ksatriyasimnesvara is reached through a passage while the other, dedicated to Vishnu, is facing outwards. The Durga is seated on her lion vahana. A small shrine may have been in the cavity in the lion's chest.
The Shore Temples configuration of the two Shiva shrines with the small Vishnu shrine in between illustrates an attempt to balance the different, competing religious requirements.
The roofs of the temples have ornamentation similar to the Pancha Rathas. The roofs have finials on the top, indicative of its religious functional nature, as it was a completed temple. The octagonal shape of the shikaras of the two temples dedicated to Shiva are in the Dravidian architectural style.
Beneath the towers, the sanctuary walls are mostly blank with out any decorations but the columns are carved over lion mounted bases.
The decorations on the outer faces of these shrines are similar to those seen on the Pancha Rathas, though due to their closeness to the sea, are partially eroded due to salty winds.
The most distinctive feature of the temple are the Dharalinga and the Somaskanda panel, which are enshrined in the interior walls of the sanctum of the east facing Kshatriyasimhesvara temple.