Inside India's 15,000 extravagant, abandoned mansions, built by spice and gem tycoons and left to decay
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A cyclist is photographed in a blurry silhouette in front of a mansion in Chettinad in 2010.
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There are more than 15,000 elaborate mansions that are mostly decaying in a small region called Chettinad in southern India.
The average mansion in the region spans 40,000 to 50,000 square feet and has more than 50 rooms.
Now the quiet streets are lined with dilapidated mansions that many owners can barely afford to maintain.
In Chettinad, a region covering about 600 square miles in southern India, there are more than 15,000 mansions that are, for the most part, in differing states of decay.
For about a century, rich bankers and traders poured their money into erecting the biggest, most beautiful mansions they could create. But after World War II, much of the region's wealth dried up due to people moving away and new laws imposed by the Indian government.
The mansions are still standing though. The average mansion spans up to 50,000 square feet and has over 50 rooms. They're so big that many current owners can barely afford to maintain them.
Take a look inside.
About 250 miles south of Chennai, in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, there is an isolated, dry region called Chettinad, which covers about 600 square miles.
Passengers are seen inside a bus in Chettinad, India.
But when you arrive you will see something unusual lining the sleepy streets of 74 towns — mansions, more than 15,000 of them, all in differing conditions.
An aerial view of mansions in Kanadukathan, India, in 2021.
The mansions were built by the Nattukottai Chettiars, a clan thought to have moved to the region hundreds of years ago after a tsunami destroyed their original coastal home.
A family photograph of two Chettians wearing cultural garb taken on an unknown date.
In the 1600s, they traded gems and salt, but it wasn't until they began working and trading with the British Empire that they really made their fortunes.
Two Chettians sit in a chair posing for a family photograph.
They were primarily bankers — some lent money to kings and the British Raj — and traders, shipping spices, rice, and gems to countries like Malaysia, Burma, and Vietnam.
An Indian woman stands outside a Chettian mansion in 2022.
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An architect named Bernard Dragon, who restores some of the mansions, told AFP that at that time, "there was a competition between the Chettiars themselves to create the most beautiful building — more beautiful than the brother, the cousin, whatever."
The exterior of a mansion in Chettinad, Tamil Nadu, India in 2000.
Unlike the extravagant exteriors, the mansions' interiors were usually more traditional. After entering a front gate, a mansion typically had a raised and covered platform where business was conducted.
A gate to the Chettinad Mansion opens in 2021.
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This was an exclusively male zone; women were not allowed at the mansion's entrance.
As the tycoons traveled for work and saw international trends — for instance, in the 1930s, art deco had become popular — they replicated the styles back in Chettinad.
An art-deco-style Chettinad mansion in 2022.
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But the boom didn't last. Everything changed around World War II as the region was occupied by the Japanese and many Chettiars were forced to leave their mansions and their fortunes behind.
A dog stands in front of a dilapidated mansion in Tamil Nadu in 2021.
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They moved to places like the US, Singapore, and Mumbai.
Things didn't improve after the war either. Across India, independence movements surged, and the government implemented new policies limiting foreign trade.
A boy looks out at a row of Chettinad mansions in India.
Soon, mansions were being abandoned and became rundown and dilapidated. Some mansions were torn up by wreckers who profited off the expensive trimmings.
A village girl walks past an old Chettinad mansion, dismantled for the antique trade in Karaikudi, in the Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu in 2006.
But in the following years, many of the owners struggled to afford the upkeep, or they got locked in family disputes about what should be done with them.
Visitors sit at the front entrance of the Raja of Chettinad's mansion, open for public viewing, in Tamil Nadu in 2005.
The mansions are now seen as comparable to England's castles: not particularly useful, but an important emblem of the past. The New York Times described them as "status symbols of staggering heft, worrisome expense, and emotional attachment."
A dilapidated mansion in Tamil Nadu in 2022.
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Not everyone can afford to move away. One mansion owner named Rama Kumarappan lived with his wife, two kids, and an aunt in a 63-bedroom mansion, where black mold covered the walls.
A man stands in an open area of the mansion where he lives.
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"When you tell people outside here that you are a Chettiar they assume you are rich," he told The New York Times. "I love this house but to keep it up is an impossible thought."
In the last few decades, to deal with costs, some owners have rented their mansions to film studios, where they're often used as a setting for traditional wedding scenes.
Wooden pillars inside a Chettinad mansion in 2000.
Other mansions have been converted into luxury hotels. Meenakshi Mayappan, the owner of a hotel called the Bangala, told The New York Times in 2017 that she thought about her mansion's fate constantly.
Owner Annamalai Chandramouli poses for a photograph outside his family mansion in 2006, which was converted into a hotel.
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"My son tells me to take things day by day, but that is impossible for me," she said. "There is too much at stake."
There aren't many other options left to owners. Selling up isn't really an option since there's little demand for an old mansion in a remote area that costs so much in upkeep.
A woman walks past a derelict Chettinad mansion in 2006.
And often a sale isn't even the point. The mansions are famous across India. To own one is to own a symbol of wealth and prestige. Some owners think this is worth paying for, even if the region's glory days are now over.
