World Heritage Site is a place (such as a building, city, complex, desert, forest, island, lake, monument, or mountain) that is listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as being of special cultural or physical significance.[1] The list is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 UNESCO member states which are elected by the General Assembly
2. The world heritage sites in India recognized by the
UNESCO are 29, as of 2012.
These are places of importance of cultural or natural
heritage as described in the UNESCO world heritage
convention, established in 1972.
India’s first two sites inscribed on the list at the world
heritage held in 1983 were the Agra and the Ajanta
caves.
3. Over the years, 27 more sites have been
inscribed, the latest site inscribed in 2012 being
the Western Ghats (Maharashtra, Karnataka,
Kerala).
Of these 29 sites, 23 are cultural sites and the
other 6 are natural sites.
A tentative list of further sites/properties
submitted by India for recognition includes 30
sites
4. In India, there are 23 heritage sites and 5 natural sites
1.Agra Fort
2.Ajanta Caves
3.Ellora Caves
4.Taj Mahal
5.Group of Monuments at
Mahabalipuram
6.Sun Temple, Konârak
7.Kaziranga National Park
8.Keoladeo National Park
9.Manas Wildlife Sanctuary
10.Churches and Convents of Goa
11.Fatehpur Sikri
12.Group of Monuments at Hampi
13.Khajuraho Group of Monuments
14.Elephanta Caves
15.Great Living Chola Temples
16.Group of Monuments at Pattadakal
17.Sundarbans National Park
18.Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National
Parks
19.Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi
20.Humayun's Tomb, Delhi
21.Qutb Minar and its Monuments, Delhi
22.Mountain Railways of India
23.Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh
Gaya
24.Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka
25.Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological
Park
26.Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
27.Red Fort Complex
28.The Jantar Mantar, Jaipur
5.
6. Agra Fort, is a monument, a
UNESCO World Heritage
site located in Agra, Uttar
Pradesh, India. It is about
2.5 km northwest of its more
famous sister monument, the
Taj Mahal. The fort can be
more accurately described as
a walled city.
The Ajanta Caves in
Aurangabad district of
Maharashtra, India are
about 30 rock-cut
Buddhist cave
monuments which date
from the 2nd century
BCE to about 480 or 650
CE.
On a hill overlooking the
plain and about 40 km
from Bhopal, the site of
Sanchi comprises a group
of Buddhist monuments
and all in different states
of conservation most of
which date back to the
2nd and 1st centuries
B.C. It is the oldest
Buddhist sanctuary in
existence and was a
major Buddhist Centre in
India until the 12th
century A.D.
Champaner-Pavagadh
Archaeological Park, a
UNESCO World Heritage
Site, is located in Panchmahal
district in Gujarat, India. It is
located around the historical
city of Champaner, a city
which was built by Sultan
Mahmud Begada of Gujarat.
7. The Elephanta Caves
are a network of
sculpted caves located
on Elephanta Island, or
Gharapuri in Mumbai
Harbour, 10 kilometers
to the east of the city of
Mumbai in the Indian
state of Maharashtra.
Chhatrapati Shivaji
Terminus is a historic
railway station in the
city of Mumbai, India. It
is a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. Its name
used to be Victoria
Terminus.[1] The station
is also called VT or CST
. The station was built in
1887. It was designed by
Frederick William
Stevens.
Old Goa or Velha Goa is a
historical city in North Goa
district in the Indian state
of Goa. The city was
constructed by the Bijapur
Sultanate in the 15th
century, and served as
capital of Portuguese India
Ellora is an
archaeological site, 29 km
North-West of the city of
Aurangabad in the Indian
state of Maharashtra
built by the Rashtrakuta
dynasty. It is also known
as Elapura.
8. The austere, grandiose site
of Hampi was the last
capital of the last great
Hindu Kingdom of
Vijayanagar. Its fabulously
rich princes built Dravidian
temples and palaces which
won the admiration of
travelers between the 14th
and 16th centuries.
Conquered by the Deccan
Muslim in 1565
The Great Living Chola
Temples are temples built
during the Chola rule in
the south of India. These
temples are the
Brihadisvara Temple at
Thanjavur, the Temple of
Gangaikondacholisvaram
and the Airavatesvara
Temple at Darasuram.
Group of monuments at
Mahabalipuram is a
monument complex on
the Coromandel Coast
of the Bay of Bengal, in
Kancheepuram district,
Tamil Nadu, India. It is
located near Chennai.
Humayun's tomb is the tomb
of the Mughal Emperor
Humayun in Delhi, India.
The tomb was commissioned
by Humayun's first wife
Bega Begum in 1569-70
9. Pattadakal, in
Karnataka, represents
the high point of an
eclectic art which, in the
7th and 8th centuries
under the Chalukya
dynasty, achieved a
harmonious blend of
architectural forms
from northern and
southern India
Kaziranga National Park is a
national park in the Golaghat
and Nagaon districts of the
state of Assam, India. A
World Heritage Site, the park
hosts two-thirds of the
world's Great One-horned
Rhinoceroses.
The Jantar Mantar is
located in the modern
city of New Delhi. It
consists of 13
architectural
astronomy
instruments
The Mahabodhi Temple
Complex is one of the
four holy sites related to
the life of the Lord
Buddha, and particularly
to the attainment of
Enlightenment.
10. The Khajuraho Group of
Monuments in Khajuraho,
a town in the Indian state of
Madhya Pradesh, located in
Chhatarpur District, about
620 kilometres southeast of
New Delhi, is one of the
most popular tourist
destinations in India.
The Keoladeo National Park or
Keoladeo Ghana National Park
formerly known as the
Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary in
Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India is
a famous avifauna sanctuary
that plays host to thousands of
birds especially during the
summer season.
Manas National Park or
Manas Wildlife Sanctuary is a
National Park, UNESCO
Natural World Heritage site, a
Project Tiger Reserve, an
Elephant Reserve and a
Biosphere Reserve in Assam,
India.
The Red Fort is a large
fort complex located in
Delhi currently
controlled by the Indian
Army. Every year on 15
August, the Prime
Minister hoists the
national flag at the Red
Fort
11. The construction of the Nilgiri
Mountain Railway, a 46-km
long meter-gauge single-track
railway in Tamil Nadu State
was first proposed in 1854, but
due to the difficulty of the
mountainous location the work
only started in 1891 and was
completed in 1908.
Nestled high in West
Himalaya, India’s Valley
of Flowers National Park
is renowned for its
meadows of endemic
alpine flowers and
outstanding natural
beauty.
The Bhimbetka rock
shelters are an
archaeological site of the
Paleolithic, exhibiting the
earliest traces of human life
on the Indian subcontinent,
and thus the beginning of
the South Asian Stone Age.
The Western Ghats
or the Sahyādri
constitute a
mountain range
along the western
side of India. It is a
UNESCO World
Heritage Site and is
one of the eight
"hottest hotspots" of
biological diversity in
the world.
12. The Taj Mahal is a
white marble
mausoleum located in
Agra, Uttar Pradesh,
India. It was built by
Mughal emperor Shah
Jahan in memory of his
third wife, Mumtaz
Mahal.
The Sundarbans National Park
is a National Park, Tiger
Reserve, and a Biosphere
Reserve in the Sundarbans
delta. It is in the Indian state of
West Bengal. This area is
densely covered by mangrove
forests. It is one of the largest
reserves for the Bengal tiger.
Konark Sun Temple is a
13th century Sun Temple,
at Konark, in Odisha,
India. It was supposedly
built by king
Narasimhadeav I of
Eastern Ganga Dynasty
around 1250.
13. “The City of Victory," was built during the second half of the 16th
century by the Mughal Emperor Akbar (1556-1605).
• It was the capital of the Empire and seat of the grand Mughal
court, but only for 14 years.
• Despite bearing exceptional testimony to the Mughal civilization
at the end of the 16th century, it had to be abandoned due to the
twin reasons of lack of water and unrest in north-west India,
leading the Emperor to shift the capital to Lahore.
• Akbar decided to construct it in 1571, on the same site where the
birth of his son, the future Emperor Jahangir, was predicted by
the wise saint Shaikh Salim Chisti(1480-1572).
• .
14. • The work, supervised by the great Mughal himself, was
completed in 1573.
•The complex of monuments and temples, all uniformly in Mughal
architectural style, includes one of the largest mosques in India,
the Jama Masjid, the Buland Darwaza, the Panch Mahal, and
the Tomb of Salim Chishti.
•The English traveller Ralph Fitch considered the city in 1585 as
'considerably larger than London and more populous.'
•Its form and layout strongly influenced the evolution of Indian
town planning, notably at Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi).