Madurai Meenakshi Temple

Madurai Meenakshi Temple, located in Madurai, TamilNadu,India.
Madurai was the ancient Capital of the Pandya kingdom ( Pandya Dynasty is one of the three Tamil Dynasties, the other two being Chola and Chera) and said to be 2500 years old City. It is popularly known as the temple city. Meenakshi means Fish eyed 

Madurai Meenakshi Temple Rajagopuram

It is one of the few temples in Tamil Nadu to have four entrances facing towards four directions.

The temple is surrounded by Gopurams (gateway towers), There are 14 gopurams, the tallest of which, the famous southern tower, rises to over
170 ft (52 m) and was built in 1559. The oldest gopuram is the eastern one; built by Marvarman Sundara Pandyan during 1216-1238. Each gopuram is covered with thousands of stone figures of animals, gods and demons painted in bright Colors. 

Legend about the Temple:

According to Hindu legend, in order to answer the prayers of the second Pandya king Malayadwaja Pandya and his wife Kanchanamalai, Parvati Devi appeared out of the holy fire of the Putra Kameshti Yagna(yagna performed by couple to have children) performed by the king. According to another legend, the goddess Parvati herself gave a boon to Kanchanamalai in one of her previous births that she would have the privilege of mothering the goddess Parvati. 
The girl who came out of the holy fire had three breasts. A voice from the heavens told the king not to worry about the abnormality and added that the third breast would vanish as soon as the girl meets her future husband. The happy king named the girl "Tadaatagai" and being the heir to the throne,Tadaatagai was trained carefully in all the fields of Science.As the time came for Tadaatagai Coronation, she started to Wage war and Conquered on the three worlds ( Satya Lok , (Brahama's Abode), Vaikunt (Lord Vishnu's Abode)and Amaravathi ( Devendra's abode and she wanted to Conquer  Lord Shiva's Abode Kailash , very easily she defeated the Pramada ganas (Shiva's army) and Nandi, (the celestial bull of Shiva), and headed to attack and conquer Shiva.

 The moment she saw lord Shiva, she realized that Lord Shiva is her destined husband and she bowed her head down in front of him with great respect as soon as she did that her third breast vanished immediately. She also realized that she was the incarnation of Parvati. 

Both Shiva and Tadaatagai returned to Madurai and the king arranged the coronation ceremony of his daughter, followed by her marriage with Shiva. After the marriage, the pair ruled over Madurai for a long time in divine forms as Sundareswarar and Meenakshi who are presiding deities of the temple.

Madurai Meenakshi Temple Attracts over 25 thousand Visitors in a day and around 30,000 visitors on Fridays.

It was in the list of top 30 nominees of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Every Year 10 day Meenakshi Tirukalyanam festival celebrated during April–May which attracts over 1 million visitors.