Tamilnadu  February 02, 2014: Ekambareswarar Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva, located inKanchipuram in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The temple is the largest temple in the town of Kanchipuram and is located in the northern part of the town. The temple gopuram (gateway tower) is 59m tall, which is one of the tallest gopurams in India.

It is one of the five major Shiva temples or PanchaBoothaSthalams (each representing a natural element) representing the element - Earth. The other four temples in this category are ThiruvanaikavalJambukeswara (water), Chidambaram Natarajar (Sky), ThiruvannamalaiArunachaleswara (fire) andKalahastiNathar (wind). It is one of the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalams, where all of the four most revered Nayanars (Saivite Saints) have sung the glories of this temple.

The temple covers an area of over 23 acres (93,000 m2).Reaching a height of 59 meters, the temple's Raja gopuram (the entrance tower to the temple) is one of the tallest in South India. One notable feature of the temple is the AayiramKaalMandapam, or the "hallway with a thousand pillars", which was built by the Vijayanagar Kings. The temple's inner walls are decorated with an array of 1,008 Siva lingams. The campus is 25 acres with 5 prakarams (or courtyards) and has a thousand-pillared hall. KampaiTirtha, the temple tank is believed to have an underground holy river. The fourth courtyard contains a small Ganesha temple and a pond. The third courtyard contains lot of smaller shrines. The sanctum sanctorum contains the lingamalong with the image of Shiva.

There is no separate shrine for Parvati within the complex as with other Shiva temples in Kanchipuram. A local belief is that Kamakshi Amman Templeis the consort for Ekambaranathar. There is a small shrine for Vishnu named ThiruNilaaththingalThundathan inside the temple complex. Vishnu is prayed as Vamana Murthy and the shrine is hailed by the Alvar saints as one of the 108 DivyaDesams. The sthala-virutcham or temple tree is a 3,500 year old mango tree whose branches are said to yield four different types of mangoes from its four branches.

PanguniUthiram festival celebrated during the month of March–April is the most popular of all the temple festivals in Kanchipuram.