Marina Beach

Marina Beach runs 13 kilometres along Chennai's eastern Bay of Bengal coast, from Fort St. George in the north to Besant Nagar in the south, making it the longest natural urban beach in India and the second-longest in the world after Cox's Bazar. The British developed it as a promenade in 1881 under Governor Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff; the broad sand was already there, swept seasonally by the strong Bay of Bengal currents. The Marina Promenade — the wide road and walkway running parallel to the beach — is lined with a series of memorials to Tamil cultural and political leaders: Annadurai, MGR, Karunanidhi, and the labour-movement statue. The beach itself is a weekday-evening hangout for the city, with ice-candy carts, sundal vendors, and impromptu cricket games. The dangerous undertow makes swimming inadvisable; the ferocious 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck the Marina hardest, killing several hundred fishing-community residents. The northern end retains a working fishing fleet and the catamaran market; the southern end is gentrified with cafes. The annual Chennai Marathon ends at the Lighthouse. Avoid harsh midday sun (April–June) — the beach has almost no shade.