Rameswaram sits at one end of a legendary land bridge and hosts a bathing ritual that requires visiting twenty-two separate wells in a set order.
Twenty-two wells, in sequence
The temple complex contains twenty-two theerthams, sacred wells, and pilgrims traditionally bathe in each in a prescribed order as an act of purification, a ritual sequence unusual in its scale compared to the single sacred tank or river bathing typical of most other major Hindu temples.
One of four, at the edge of the map
Rameswaram is one of the Char Dham, the four principal pilgrimage sites of Hindu tradition alongside Badrinath, Dwarka and Puri, and its location near Adam's Bridge, a chain of shoals and small islands popularly identified with the legendary land bridge described in the Ramayana as built to reach Lanka, gives the site a specific geographic tie to the epic beyond its temple architecture alone.
A corridor built to be walked
The temple's outer corridor, generally cited as the longest temple corridor in India, runs for a considerable distance around the complex lined with sculpted pillars, and completing a full circuit of it on foot is itself treated by pilgrims as part of the devotional practice expected during a visit, not merely as an architectural feature to admire in passing.