we visited the Tanjore and

Brihadeeswarar temple on jan15th 2011

the main door

the second door

the holy bull Nandi

The temple had its foundations laid out by the Tamil emperor Arulmozhivarman, popularly called Rajaraja Chola I in 1002 CE , as the first of the great Tamil Chola building projects. The temple was built by Rajaraja Chola, one of the greatest Tamil emperors to grace the throne of the Chola empire in compliance of a command given to him in his dream

 Each side of the sanctuary has a bay emphasizing the principle cult icons.The karuvarai, a Tamil word meaning the interior of the sanctum sanctorum, is the inner most sanctum and focus of the temple where an image of the primary deity, Shiva, resides. Inside is a huge stone lingam Literally the word Karuvarai means "womb chamber" from Tamil word Karu for foetus. Only priests are allowed to enter this inner most chamber

all our group at +3!!!

in the left bottom our indian guide,his name is Basker

original picture