Since there are now fewer than seven towers , the name has inspired speculation and argument . The December 2004 tsunami briefly exposed the beachfront near Saluvankuppam ( now north of Mahabalipuram ) , revealing inscriptions and structures . Badrinarayanan said in a BBC report that they dated to the 9th century and may have been destroyed by a 13th-century tsunami . The tsunami also revealed large structures on the seabed about a kilometer offshore , which archaeologists speculate may be the ancient Mahabalipuram . According to a '' Science '' article , the tsunami exposed rocks with an " elaborately sculpted head of an elephant and a horse in flight " , " a small niche with a statue of a deity ; another rock with a reclining lion " , and other Hindu religious iconography . Marine archaeologists and underwater diving teams have explored a site east of the Shore Temple , one of the monuments , after the 2004 tsunami . This has revealed ruins of fallen walls , a large number of rectangular blocks and other structures parallel to the shore , and the forty surviving monuments
December 2004 tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram