Which of the Mountain Railways of India was the first to be inscribed on the World Heritage List?

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.