Besant Nagar
Besant Nagar ( Tamil : பெசன்ட் நகர் ) is a district of Chennai (Madras), the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu . It is named after the theosophist Annie Besant (1847–1933).
Besant Nagar is located in the south of Chennai around eleven kilometers south of the city center. Administratively, Besant Nagar belongs to the Adyar zone . The boundaries of the district are not precisely defined, but Besant Nagar can be delimited from Thiruvanmiyur in the south and Adyar in the west. In the north is the park-like area of the Adyar Theosophical Society on the banks of the Adyar River . To the east is the sandy Elliot's Beach on the shores of the Bay of Bengal .
Besant Nagar is one of the middle-class residential areas in southern Chennai that were developed between the late 1940s and early 1980s. The main attraction of Besant Nagar is Elliot's Beach, named after Edwar Elliot , the governor of Madras from 1803 to 1820. Just like the adjoining city beach Marina Beach to the north, Elliot's Beach attracts numerous visitors, especially in the evenings and on weekends, to stroll to the beach come. The beach is decorated with a now dilapidated memorial to the Danish sailor Kaj Schmidt, who died here in 1930 while saving a young British woman from drowning. Near the beach is the modern Ashtalakshmi Temple (completed in 1976), in which the Hindu goddess Lakshmi is worshiped in eight different aspects. Also nearby is a church dedicated to Our Lady of Velankanni (built in 1972 and expanded in 1985).
Street in Besant Nagar
At Elliot's Beach
Carl Schmidt memorial on Elliot's Beach
Ashtalakshmi Temple
