Marina Beach

View from the lighthouse to Marina Beach

The Marina Beach ( English [ məˈriːnə biːtʃ ], Tamil : மெரீனா கடற்கரை [ ˈmeriːnaː ˈkaɖərkarɛi̯ ]) is a sandy beach in Chennai (Madras), the capital of the Indian state Tamil Nadu . The 13 kilometer long city beach is one of Chennai's most famous attractions.

topography

At Marina Beach

Marina Beach begins at the mouth of the Cooum River near Fort St. George and ends in the Besant Nagar district in the south. The length of the beach is 13 kilometers. The dubious claim that Marina Beach is the second longest beach in the world is often rumored. At its widest point, the Marina Beach is over 400 meters wide. The course of the beach is followed by Kamaraj Salai (formerly Beach Road ), one of the main traffic axes in Chennai.

At the north end of the beach are the monumental grave monuments of the politicians CN Annadurai and MG Ramachandran . Along the Kamaraj Salai there are numerous representative buildings in the Indo-Saracen style of the colonial era (including the Senate building of the University of Madras and the Presidency College ), as well as the so-called Ice House , which houses a museum for the Hindu philosopher Vivekananda , and a lighthouse built in 1977 as a landmark that can be seen from afar. Not far from the beach is the St. Thomas Basilica in the Santhome district .

history

The seafront in 1913

Until the 19th century, the beach only comprised a narrow strip of coast. After the port was built north of the Cooum estuary between 1875 and 1905 during the British colonial period , the coastline changed dramatically: the coastal current running from south to north began to deposit more and more sediments on the beach section south of the port. The process continues to this day and leads to the fact that the Marina Beach increases by 40 square meters annually and the mouths of the Cooum and Adyar are now almost completely silted up. At the same time, the stretch of coast north of the port is affected by coastal erosion . The name Marina was coined by Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant-Duff , 1881–1886 governor of Madras, who also had the beach promenade laid out, based on the city of Palermo in Sicily.

Marina Beach was hit by the devastating tsunami after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake . The tsunami wave surprised many walkers on the beach in the morning and killed around 160 people on Marina Beach.

Visitors

Beach goers at Marina Beach

Marina Beach is one of Chennai's most popular attractions for both tourists and residents of the city. Especially in the evenings and on weekends, large numbers of people who come to stroll to the beach populate Marina Beach. The huge influx of visitors is increasingly causing the beach to be littered : In 2011, 150 tons of rubbish was generated in just one day during the Pongal Festival. Nevertheless, the Chennais city council has tried to beautify the beach.

Statues

A number of statues line Marina Beach. The persons portrayed also include important personalities from recent Indian history ( Mahatma Gandhi , Subhash Chandra Bose , K. Kamaraj ), but above all they are important figures in Tamil cultural history. These include characters from Tamil literature ( Kannagi ), Tamil poets from both the classical age ( Tiruvalluvar , Ilango Adigal , Kamban , Auvaiyar ) and modern ( Subramaniya Bharati , Bharathidasan ), but also foreigners who have made a name for themselves in Tamil ( Constanzo Beschi , Robert Caldwell , GU Pope ). From north to south these are the following statues:

image	Surname	Remarks
	Robert Caldwell	British missionary and orientalist (1814-1891). Coined the term Dravidian languages .
	Kamban	Tamil poet (12th century?). Author of the Kambaramayanam .
	Ilango Adigal	Tamil poet (5th century?). Author of the Silappadigaram .
	"The triumph of work"	Allegorical representation of the achievements of the working class.
	Subramaniya Bharati	Tamil poet (1882-1921). Founder of modern Tamil poetry.
	Kannagi	Protagonist of the Silappadigaram .
	Subhash Chandra Bose	Indian freedom fighter (1897–1945). Fought on the side of the Japanese in World War II.
	Tiruvalluvar	Tamil poet (5th / 6th century?). Author of the Tirukkural .
	GU Pope	British missionary and orientalist (1820-1908). Translated classic Tamil texts into English.
	Bharathidasan	Tamil poet (1891-1964). Propagated the ideology of the Dravidian Movement .
	Auvaiyar	Tamil poet (12th century?).
	Constanzo Beschi	Italian missionary (1680–1742). Authored literary works in Tamil.
	Mahatma Gandhi	Indian freedom fighter (1869–1948). Leader of the Indian independence movement.
	K. Kamaraj	Tamil politician (1903-1975). Was Chief Minister of Madras State from 1954 to 1963.

Individual evidence

1. ^ R. Krishnamoorthy, GS Bharathi, P. Periakali, S. Ramachandran: Coastal zone hazards in India: Study based on remote sensing and GIS techniques. In: Gerard Begni (Ed.): Observing our environment from space. New solutions for a new millenium. Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse 2002, ISBN 90-5809-254-2 , p. 81.
2. ^ S. Muthiah: The second longest beach? ( Memento of the original from August 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: The Hindu . August 21, 2002. 
3. ↑ Alpa Sheth, Snigdha Sanyal, Arvind Jaiswal, Prathibha Gandhi: Effects of the December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami on the Indian Mainland. In: Earthquake Spectra. Volume 22, 2006, p. 459. (PDF; 4.5 MB)
4. ↑ K. Lakshmi, Liffy Thomas: Beaches littered with garbage post-festival. In: The Hindu. January 19, 2011.
5. ↑ Marina beach to become more tourist-friendly. In: The Hindu. December 20, 2009.
6. ↑ Rina Kamath: Chennai, Kanchipuram and Mamallapuram. 2nd Edition. Orient Longman, Chennai 2000, p. 24.

Web links

Commons : Marina Beach  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Beaches in Tamilnadu. Tamil Nadu Tourism

Coordinates: 13 ° 3 '17.4 "  N , 80 ° 16' 58.8"  E