The Mylapore Kapaleeshwarar temple is one of the oldest temples in Chennai. The region around Chennai has served as an important administrative, military, economic and center since the first century.It was governed by various dynasties South India , including the Pallava kings, the Chola, Pandya, and Vijaynagar. The city of Mylapore, which is now part of Chennai, was once a major port Pallavan. The Portuguese arrived in 1522 and built a port called São Tomé after the Christian apostle, St. Thomas, which would have preached in the area between 52 and 70 EC. In 1612, the Dutch settled near Pulicat, just north of the city. On August 22, 1639, Francis Day of the British East India Company has purchased a small strip of land on the Coromandel coast, King Vijayanagara, Peda Venkata Raya in Chandragiri. The region was ruled by Damerla Venkatapathy, Nayak of Vandavasi. It granted the British permission to build a factory and warehouse for their business. A year later, the British built Fort St. George, which became the core of the colonial city more and more. In 1746, Fort St. George and Madras were captured by the French under General de La Bourdonnais, Governor of Mauritius, who looted the city and its peripheral villages. The British control in 1749 by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and the walled city of fortified walls to withstand further attacks from the English and another threat, Hyder Ali, the Sultan of Mysore. In the late eighteenth century, the British conquered most of the region of Tamil Nadu and in the north of the modern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, establishment of the Presidency of Madras with Madras as its capital. Under British rule, the city has turned into a major urban centre and the naval base.

A 18th century painting of Fort St. GeorgeWith the advent of the railway in India in the late nineteenth century, the thriving urban centre was linked to other cities like Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), promoting better communication And trade with the hinterland. Chennai is the only Indian city to be attacked by the Central Powers during World War I, when an oil deposit was bombed by the German light cruiser Dresden, September 22, 1914, as it burst into the sea routes of Indian Ocean, causing disruption of Shipping. After India gained its independence in 1947, the city became the capital of the state of Madras, renamed the State of Tamil Nadu in 1969. The violent unrest of 1965 against the imposition of Hindi as a national language, marked a major shift in the political dynamics of the city and the whole state. In 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami lashed the shores of Chennai, killing many and permanently alters the coastline.

Chennai is on a flat coastal plain, as shown on this Landsat 7 map.Chennai is on the south coast of India, in the north of Tamil Nadu, on a flat coastal plain, known as the plains coastal east. Its average altitude is about 6.7 meters (20 feet), and its highest point is 60 m (200 ft). Two rivers meander through Chennai, the Cooum River (or Koovam) through the centre and the Adyar River to the south. Both rivers are heavily polluted by sewage and waste from domestic and commercial sources. The state government periodically removes silt and pollution of the Adyar, which is much less polluted than the Cooum. A protected Adyar on the estuary forms a natural habitat for many species of birds and animals. The Buckingham Canal, 4 km (3 miles) inland, is parallel to the coast, connecting the two rivers. The Otteri Nullah,a stream east-west across the north of Chennai and responds to the pelvis Buckingham Canal Bridge. Several lakes of different sizes are located in the western outskirts of the city. Red Hills, Sholavaram and Chembarambakkam Lake Chennai supply with drinking water. Sources groundwater are becoming brackish.