The Vivekananda Museum of Chennai is a special attraction for the visitors from all over the world. It is also popularly known as the Illam. Vivekananda Museum is established on the sandy shores of the Marina Beach, between Tiruvallikani and Lighthouse Train Stations. It is one of the most illustrious museums in the whole of Tamil Nadu, truly upholding the rich legacy of Indian Culture. The Vivekananda Museum in Chennai has vistas of exclusive and superb elements, which further ennobles its existing grandeur.

The story of its formation is quite interesting. In the beginning, Vivekananda Museum is used to be the warehouse for storing ice that was brought from the North India. It is a common belief that it is the best place to store ice from melting. It was later transformed into the place perfect for preserving vestiges and antiquities.

Today, it was recognized as one of the most important museums in the whole of Chennai city. Plentiful musical instruments, including both of modern and ancient times, are on exhibit at the lobby of Vivekananda Museum. There is an interesting story related to the museum. According to some sources, Swami Vivekananda gave comprehensive lectures in the erstwhile Ice House and encouraged many people who finally gave up `absolutism` and mentioned austerity in the rest of their lives. In fact, the name of the museum has been conferred after him.

In fact, the essence of some of the valuable teachings of the Indian philosophy, namely, Vedanta, and Upanishads are nicely conserved in some of the rare manuscripts that are stored in Vivekananda Museum. Moreover, various photographs, essays, autobiographies, memoirs of Vivekananda are preserved with much care and concern at Vivekananda Museum.

For public viewing, The Vivekananda Museum remains open every day from 10 am to 12 pm. It again re opens between 3 pm to 7pm. Wednesdays are closed . In nutshell, Vivekananda Museum, truly, upholds the ethnicity of the Indian culture and tradition.