Place · hill station · India
Kodaikanal
Also known as Kodaikanal, Kodai, Palni Kodai
The Palni hills hill station American missionaries founded in 1845 as a sanatorium for their families working on the plains, with the Kodaikanal International School (1901) and the Solar Physics Observatory (1899) built in the same period. Kodaikanal Lake was dug by Collector Levinge in 1863 and gave the town its postcard image. The star-shaped lake, the Coaker's Walk cliff path, and the surrounding kurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) landscape — the plant that flowers once every twelve years — define the town's visual character.
Catastrophe & landscapeLearning & science
- Function
- Landscape & environmental change
- Tradition
- Standard reference and local gazetteers; ASI, state archaeology and INTACH records where applicable.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 10.238, 77.489