Madurai Meenakshi temple, Tamil Nadu : Pandyas settled at Madurai and their empire last from 5 c BC to 11 c AD . The great Madurai temple, dedicated to Sundaresvara and his wife Meenakshi, 260 m long and 229 m broad, with nine gopurams, one of which is 47 m high. Arya Nayak (sent as the ruler of Madurai by Vijayanagar empire) built the thousand pillared hall in about 1550. The tank is surrounded by arcades and is very beautiful. Vishvanath built the vimana or central shrine in about 1560. Madurai is 500 km from Chennai and is well connected by rail.