Mahabalipuram is located on the Coromandel Coast next to the Bay of Bengal. This city was actually the 2nd capital of the Pallavas. During the rule of the Pallavas, new styles of art and architecture were pioneered. Mahabalipuram is where they tried and then exhibited their new artistic and architectural creations. As a result, the area is brimming with rock-cut caves and numerous temples. The city of Mahabalipuram was largely developed by the Pallava king Narasimhavarman I in the 7th century AD. Themandapa or pavilions and the rathas or shrines shaped as temple chariots are hewn from the granite rock face, while the famed Shore Temple, erected half a century later, is built from dressed stone