Located on the Bay of Bengal 60km south of Chennai, Mamallapuram is an enchanting little seaside town with a lot to offer. The group of monuments at Mahabalipuram is World Heritage-listed. The bas-reliefs are as extraordinary for the skill with which they're made as for their depiction of ordinary life. Whereas much stonework of the time depicts complex religious symbolism, in Mamallapuram the ancient carvings show such everyday scenes as women milking buffalo. Most of the stone carvings, temples, and manapams in Mamallapuram date to the Pallava dynasty of the 7th and 8th centuries. The sculptures have all been carved from the rock of the natural landscape—much of it granite—and are considered to be the oldest existing examples of Dravidian architecture.