The Meenakshi Amman temple is the city’s most important landmark. It is one of the five sabhas (divine dance stages) called as Velli Ambalam (silver Hall). Madurai, perhaps appropriately given her age, captures many of India’s glaring dichotomies, with a centre dominated by a medieval temple and an economy increasingly driven by IT, all overlaid with the energy and excitement of a big Indian city and slotted into a much more manageable package than Chennai’s sprawl. Historically it is also called as the Athens of the East.