Kanchipuram district is one of the 38 districts in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. The area comprising the present day Kancheepuram district was earlier a part of Chingleput district. The original Chingleput district was split in 1997 into form the present day Kanchiepuram and Tiruvallur districts.

Chingleput district was a district in the Madras Presidency of British India. It covered the area of the present-day districts of Kanchipuram, Chengalpattu and Tiruvallur and parts of Chennai city. It was sub-divided into six taluks with a total area of 7,970 square kilometres (3,079 sq mi). The first capital was the town of Karunguzhi, with an interruption between 1825 and 1835, administrative headquarters were transferred to Kanchipuram. In 1859, the capital Saidapet, now a neighbourhood in the city of Chennai, was made the administrative headquarters of the district.