Thiru Aappanoor Temple, Madurai

Thiru Aappanoor is a Shiva temple at Sellur, part of Madurai city, across the Vaigai from Simmakkal. Legend says a wedge, or aappu, turned into a lingam to help the Pandya king Solandhagan cross the flooded Vaigai to the Meenakshi Amman Temple, giving the temple its name; Shiva is also said to have turned the river sand into rice during a famine. Sambandar sang of it, and it is one of the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalams.

The Pandyas began the temple and the Nayaks enlarged it, with gifts also from the Sethupathi kings. Shiva's shrine faces east, and a Subrahmanya shrine between those of Shiva and Ambal makes it a Somaskanda-type temple; a peepal tree with a Vinayagar beneath it stands between the shrines. Brahmotsavam falls in Maasi, and on Panguni Uththiram the images of Meenakshi and Sundareswarar come across the river to visit. Town buses run from Periyar bus stand.