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Meenakshi Sundareswara

This Madurai temple was built in the 16th-century. There are those who refer to Madurai as a power center, claiming that the earth around the old temple emanates supercharged vibrations. To the millions of pilgrims who throng there to pray, meditate, prostrate themselves, and perform the ritual offerings of puja, Madurai is surely a power center. The relief sculptures of deities and mythical figures and erotic contortionists and gods and goddesses disporting themselves are eye-popping and riotous. Make sure to take in the scores of pillars sculptured with steamy scenes from the soap opera life of a Madurai princess who—among many other feats—shifted gender and miraculously lost the third breast she'd been born with upon encountering the right man, who was, it turned out, a god in disguise. Just following the plotline is enough to raise a sweat.