Big temple in Thanjavur is constructed/finished in the year of 1010 and it’s 1000th year celebration happened on 2010.
It is part of UNESCO World Heritage site under the title of”The Great Chola Temples”.
Big temple was constructed by one of the greatest kings of Chola empire Raja Raja Chola -It is mentioned that he took around 7 years to construct this temple. He mobilized the funds from Sri Lanka after his successful invasion.
Nandi at this temple is second largest in the country and it is carved out of a single stone.
There is a 80 ton stone is kept on the top of the temple tower(Gopuram). The main tower is 212 ft and it was a engineering marvel to uplift the 80 ton stone to the top of the Tower.
Approximately 130,000 tonnes of granite used to built this temple. Surprisingly, these heavy stones were brought down from a place that was located 50 miles away from the Brihadeeshwar temple. No cement has been used.
The big temple is said to have more than hundred underground passages that connects to various other places. Nowadays, most of the passages are sealed. In the earlier days, the passages were used by sages, Kings and Queens to roam about different temples and places, especially during auspicious festivals like Deepavali, Maha Shivarathri and Makar Sankranti.
