Thiruvalluvar Statue

The Thiruvalluvar Statue stands on a small rock about 400 metres off the shore at Kanniyakumari and is reached by ferry. It honours Thiruvalluvar, the Tamil poet and scholar who wrote the Tirukkural. The sculptor was V. Ganapathi Sthapathi; Prime Minister Morarji Desai laid the foundation in 1979, carving began only in 1990 and the work was finished in 1999. Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi opened it on 1 January 2000.

The total height of 133 feet matches the number of chapters in the Tirukkural. The figure itself is 95 feet, the count of chapters in the Porul and Inbam sections, and it rests on a 38-foot pedestal standing for the Aram section. The body bends slightly at the waist in a pose recalling Nataraja. Around the base is the Alankara Mandapam with ten elephant figures for the ten directions, and 140 steps inside lead up to the feet. Some 500 sculptors worked on it with stone from the Pattumala Kuppam, Sirudhamoor and Ambasamudram hills, and it was built to resist earthquakes.