UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India: List and Facts

The correct answer is C, 1972. The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1972 and came into force in 1975 once enough countries had ratified it. It created the World Heritage List, the idea of outstanding universal value and the World Heritage Committee that decides on inscriptions. India became a party to the Convention in 1977 and its first sites were inscribed in 1983.

Option A, 1945, is the year the United Nations came into being, and UNESCO itself was founded that November, but the heritage Convention came much later. Option B, 1959, is remembered instead for the international campaign to save the Abu Simbel temples in Egypt, the work that gave UNESCO the idea of a shared world heritage. Option D, 1992, is the year the World Heritage Centre was set up and the year Manas entered the danger list, not the year of the Convention.

The correct answer is B, Taj Mahal and Agra Fort. India's first four World Heritage Sites were inscribed together in 1983: the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort in Uttar Pradesh, and the Ajanta and Ellora caves in Maharashtra. The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in memory of Mumtaz Mahal on the bank of the Yamuna, and Agra Fort, raised in red sandstone by Akbar, stands a short distance upstream.

Option A is wrong because Khajuraho and Hampi were both inscribed in 1986. Option C mixes years, since the Sun Temple at Konark was inscribed in 1984 and the Elephanta Caves in 1987. Option D is later still, Sanchi in 1989 and the rock shelters of Bhimbetka in 2003. Only the 1983 group opens India's list, and Agra holds two of those four sites.

The correct answer is A, Khangchendzonga National Park. This park in Sikkim was inscribed in 2016 under both the natural and the cultural criteria, which makes it India's only mixed site. It was recognised for its glaciers, forests and rare high-altitude wildlife and also for the sacred meaning the mountain holds in the beliefs of the communities living around it, where peaks, caves, rivers and lakes are worshipped.

Option B, the Great Himalayan National Park in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, was inscribed in 2014 as a purely natural site. Option C, Nanda Devi and the Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand, is also natural, Nanda Devi from 1988 and the Valley of Flowers added in 2005. Option D, the Sundarbans in West Bengal, was inscribed in 1987 as a natural site for its mangrove ecosystem and its tigers, not for cultural value.

The correct answer is C, Gujarat. Rani ki Vav stands at Patan on the bank of the Saraswati in Gujarat and was built in the eleventh century during the Solanki or Chaulukya period, by tradition as a memorial raised by Queen Udayamati. It is a seven-storeyed stepwell turned into an inverted temple, its walls carrying hundreds of sculptures, among them the ten incarnations of Vishnu. The monument appears on the reverse of the hundred rupee currency note.

Option A, Rajasthan, has famous stepwells such as Chand Baori at Abhaneri, but they are not inscribed. Option B, Madhya Pradesh, holds Khajuraho, Sanchi and Bhimbetka. Option D, Maharashtra, holds the cave sites and the Mumbai ensembles. Patan in Gujarat is the answer, and the state also holds Champaner Pavagadh, the Historic City of Ahmedabad and Dholavira.

The correct answer is B, Telangana. The Ramappa temple stands at Palampet in the Mulugu district of Telangana. It was built in the early thirteenth century under the Kakatiya rulers of Warangal by their general Recharla Rudra, and is named after its sculptor Ramappa, a rare case of a temple carrying its craftsman's name. It is famous for bracket figures of dancers and musicians carved in polished black basalt and for light floating bricks used in the tower.

Option A, Karnataka, holds Hampi, Pattadakal and the Hoysala ensembles at Belur, Halebid and Somanathapura. Option C, Andhra Pradesh, was part of the Kakatiya domain historically but Palampet lies in Telangana after the state was formed. Option D, Tamil Nadu, holds Mahabalipuram and the Great Living Chola Temples, a different dynasty and a different style.

The correct answer is C, Ahmedabad. The Historic City of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, founded by Sultan Ahmad Shah in the fifteenth century on the eastern bank of the Sabarmati, was inscribed in 2017 and became the first city in India to enter the World Heritage List as a whole city. Its walled town is valued for the dense pols or traditional neighbourhoods, wooden houses, mosques and tombs of the Sultanate period and the bird feeders called chabutaras.

Option A, Jaipur, is a genuine World Heritage City but was inscribed two years later, in 2019, so it is the second and the usual trap. Option B, Varanasi, one of the oldest living cities in the world, is not inscribed. Option D, Hyderabad, has monuments such as the Charminar and Golconda on India's Tentative List but has not been inscribed.

The correct answer is A, Madhya Pradesh. The Bhimbetka rock shelters lie in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, in the foothills of the Vindhyan range south of Bhopal, and were inscribed in 2003. They hold hundreds of shelters whose walls were painted from the Mesolithic period onward, with hunting scenes, animals, dancers and later horse riders, giving the earliest evidence of human life in this part of the subcontinent. The site was brought to scholarly notice by V. S. Wakankar.

Option B, Chhattisgarh, has rock art at sites such as Singanpur but none inscribed. Option C, Odisha, holds the Sun Temple at Konark. Option D, Jharkhand, has no World Heritage Site. Madhya Pradesh is a rich state for this chapter, with Khajuraho, Sanchi and Bhimbetka all on the list.

The correct answer is B, one-horned rhinoceros. Kaziranga National Park lies on the floodplain of the Brahmaputra in Assam and holds the largest population of the Indian one-horned rhinoceros. It was inscribed in 1985, the same year as Manas Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam and Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan. Kaziranga is also a tiger reserve and its tall wet grassland supports wild buffalo, swamp deer and elephants, the group often called the big five of the park.

Option A, the Asiatic lion, survives only in the Gir forest of Gujarat, which is not a World Heritage Site. Option C, the snow leopard, belongs to the high Himalaya, in parks such as Khangchendzonga and the Great Himalayan National Park. Option D, the Nilgiri tahr, is a mountain goat of the Western Ghats, so it is linked to that serial site rather than to Kaziranga.

The correct answer is B, ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites. When a country nominates a monument, a city or an archaeological site, ICOMOS studies the file, sends experts to the place and recommends to the World Heritage Committee whether it should be inscribed, referred back or rejected. The third advisory body named in the Convention is ICCROM, which works on the conservation and restoration of cultural property and on training.

Option A, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, is the advisory body for natural sites, so it handles national parks and biodiversity nominations, not monuments. Option C, the United Nations Environment Programme, is a UN body for the environment and has no role in inscription. Option D, the World Wide Fund for Nature, is a conservation organisation but not an advisory body under the Convention.

The correct answer is C, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. This narrow gauge line in West Bengal, opened in the late nineteenth century and famous for its loops and zig zag reverses as it climbs to Darjeeling, was inscribed in 1999 and became the first railway property of India on the list. The Mountain Railways of India were then extended twice, and the site is counted as one serial property with three components.

Option A, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway in Tamil Nadu, the only rack railway in India, was added in 2005. Option B, the Kalka Shimla Railway in Himachal Pradesh, with its long tunnels and arched bridges, was added in 2008. Option D, the Matheran Hill Railway in Maharashtra, is on India's Tentative List but has not been inscribed, so it is the distractor here.

The correct answer is B, Kumbhalgarh. The Hill Forts of Rajasthan were inscribed in 2013 as a serial site of six forts: Chittorgarh, Kumbhalgarh, Ranthambore, Amber, Jaisalmer and Gagron. Kumbhalgarh in the Rajsamand district stands in the Aravalli range, was built in the fifteenth century by Rana Kumbha of Mewar, and is known for a perimeter wall that is among the longest of any fort in the world. Maharana Pratap was born here.

Option A, Mehrangarh at Jodhpur, is one of the grandest forts of Rajasthan but is not part of the inscribed group. Option C, Junagarh at Bikaner, is a plains fort and is also outside the group. Option D, Lohagarh at Bharatpur, the mud fort the Jats held against attack, is likewise not inscribed. Only the six named forts count.