1000pillar Srirangam

Year: 1868 : Photograph from an album of 41 albumen prints by Edmund David Lyon, showing the Hall of a Thousand Columns at the Ranganatha temple in Srirangam. Lyon's 'Notes to Accompany a Series of Photographs Prepared to Illustrate the Ancient Architecture of Southern India',
edited by James Fergusson, gives the following description: 'Exactly opposite the Portico with the richly carved horsemen pillars... is a portico or Hall, said to contain 1,000 pillars. Such halls are far from being uncommon in Southern temples, some containing really 1,000 pillars, each of a single slab of granite.
Owing, however, to the omission of several in the centre, this one possesses only 980, which support a roof nearly six feet in thickness. It is in this hall that pilgrims meet, during the great festival in January, when the god is exhibited to thousands of ecstatic devotees - See more at: http://srirangamtoday.com/srirangamtemple_oldrarephotos.html#sthash.emW3LPIm.dpuf