Chapter 6: Heritage sites and museums

India's World Heritage Sites

Every Indian site on the UNESCO World Heritage List as of October 2026, grouped by type with the year each was added, plus the 16 sites that design entrance exams ask about most.

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6 facts to know

As of October 2026, India has 45 World Heritage Sites: 37 cultural, 7 natural and 1 mixed.
The first four were added in 1983: Ajanta Caves, Ellora Caves, Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal.
Khangchendzonga National Park in Sikkim (2016) is India's only mixed site, listed for both nature and culture.
Ahmedabad (2017) was the first Indian city listed as a whole historic city. Jaipur followed in 2019.
The three newest sites are the Moidams of Charaideo in Assam (2024), the Maratha Military Landscapes (2025) and the Ancient Buddhist Site of Sarnath (2026).
Ajanta is cut into basalt rock; the Descent of the Ganges at Mahabalipuram is carved in granite.

What the list is

UNESCO, the United Nations body for education, science and culture, keeps a list of places it judges important to all of humanity. A place gets on the list when the World Heritage Committee, which meets once a year, votes it in. Being added is called being inscribed.

Every site is one of three types:

Cultural: made by people, such as temples, forts, caves, tombs, railways and whole old cities.
Natural: made by nature, such as forests, mountains, wetlands and the animals that live there.
Mixed: important for both reasons at once.

India joined the World Heritage Convention, the treaty behind the list, in November 1977. Its first sites were inscribed six years later.

Cultural sites (37)

Sorted by the year each was inscribed. Where a site was later made bigger, the extra years are in brackets.

Year	Site	State
1983	Agra Fort	Uttar Pradesh
1983	Ajanta Caves	Maharashtra
1983	Ellora Caves	Maharashtra
1983	Taj Mahal	Uttar Pradesh
1984	Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram	Tamil Nadu
1984	Sun Temple, Konark	Odisha
1986	Churches and Convents of Goa	Goa
1986	Fatehpur Sikri	Uttar Pradesh
1986	Group of Monuments at Hampi	Karnataka
1986	Khajuraho Group of Monuments	Madhya Pradesh
1987	Elephanta Caves	Maharashtra
1987	Great Living Chola Temples (2004)	Tamil Nadu
1987	Group of Monuments at Pattadakal	Karnataka
1989	Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi	Madhya Pradesh
1993	Humayun's Tomb	Delhi
1993	Qutb Minar and its Monuments	Delhi
1999	Mountain Railways of India (2005, 2008)	West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh
2002	Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya	Bihar
2003	Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka	Madhya Pradesh
2004	Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park	Gujarat
2004	Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus)	Maharashtra
2007	Red Fort Complex	Delhi
2010	The Jantar Mantar, Jaipur	Rajasthan
2013	Hill Forts of Rajasthan	Rajasthan
2014	Rani-ki-Vav (the Queen's Stepwell) at Patan	Gujarat
2016	Archaeological Site of Nalanda Mahavihara	Bihar
2016	The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier (Capitol Complex)	Chandigarh
2017	Historic City of Ahmadabad	Gujarat
2018	Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai	Maharashtra
2019	Jaipur City	Rajasthan
2021	Kakatiya Rudreshwara (Ramappa) Temple	Telangana
2021	Dholavira: a Harappan City	Gujarat
2023	Santiniketan	West Bengal
2023	Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas	Karnataka
2024	Moidams, the Mound-Burial System of the Ahom Dynasty	Assam
2025	Maratha Military Landscapes of India	Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu
2026	Ancient Buddhist Site of Sarnath	Uttar Pradesh

A few of these are groups spread over several places:

Mountain Railways of India: the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (1999), the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (2005) and the Kalka-Shimla Railway (2008).
Great Living Chola Temples: the Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur (1987), joined in 2004 by the temples at Gangaikondacholapuram and Darasuram.
Hill Forts of Rajasthan: Chittorgarh, Kumbhalgarh, Ranthambore, Gagron, Amber and Jaisalmer.
Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas: temples at Belur, Halebidu and Somanathapura.
Maratha Military Landscapes: eleven forts in Maharashtra, including Raigad, Shivneri and Pratapgad, and Gingee Fort in Tamil Nadu.
Le Corbusier: India's only transnational site. The Capitol Complex in Chandigarh is listed together with 16 other buildings by the same architect in six other countries.

Natural sites (7)

Year	Site	State
1985	Kaziranga National Park	Assam
1985	Keoladeo National Park	Rajasthan
1985	Manas Wildlife Sanctuary	Assam
1987	Sundarbans National Park	West Bengal
1988	Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks (2005)	Uttarakhand
2012	Western Ghats	Keralam (Kerala until 2026), Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra
2014	Great Himalayan National Park Conservation Area	Himachal Pradesh

The one mixed site

Year	Site	State
2016	Khangchendzonga National Park	Sikkim

Firsts and records

Question	Answer
First Indian sites (1983)	Ajanta Caves, Ellora Caves, Agra Fort, Taj Mahal
First natural sites (1985)	Kaziranga, Manas, Keoladeo
Only mixed site	Khangchendzonga National Park, Sikkim (2016)
Only site shared with other countries	Le Corbusier's Capitol Complex, Chandigarh (2016)
First whole city	Historic City of Ahmadabad (2017)
Newest site, as of October 2026	Ancient Buddhist Site of Sarnath (2026)
Sites once on UNESCO's danger list	Manas (1992 to 2011) and Hampi (1999 to 2006)

Indian cities on the list

Only two living cities are listed as whole historic cities. Other entries cover one part of a city, or an ancient city that is now a ruin.

City	Year	What is listed
Ahmedabad	2017	The walled old city founded in 1411, with its pols (gated lanes of wooden houses) and Sultanate mosques
Jaipur	2019	The walled Pink City laid out on a grid in 1727
Mumbai	2018	Two groups of buildings: Victorian Gothic and Art Deco
Chandigarh	2016	The Capitol Complex only, as part of the Le Corbusier site
Dholavira	2021	An ancient Harappan city, now ruins, in Kutch

Sites exams ask about

A faded wall painting of a calm, crowned figure holding a lotus flower, surrounded by smaller figures. — Picture: Unknown author. Public domain.

Ajanta Caves

Where: Near Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar), Maharashtra
When: 2nd century BCE to about the 6th century CE
Who: Buddhist monks; the later caves under the Vakataka dynasty
Style: Rock-cut Buddhist caves with wall paintings
Made with: Cut into a basalt cliff above a river gorge

About 30 Buddhist caves cut into a horseshoe-shaped cliff, made in two phases several centuries apart. They hold the finest surviving ancient paintings in India, telling stories from the Buddha's past lives (the Jataka tales). One of the first four Indian sites, inscribed in 1983.

Spot it by

Paintings of graceful figures with heavy-lidded eyes and soft shading, like the Bodhisattva Padmapani with his lotus in Cave 1 (pictured).

Remember

Ajanta means paintings; Ellora means carving.

Don't confuse

Ellora, about 100 km away, is mostly sculpture and has Hindu and Jain caves too. Ajanta is Buddhist only.

A huge stone temple with carved walls and a tall pillar, standing in a pit cut into a rocky hillside. — Picture: Ms Sarah Welch. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ellora Caves

Where: Near Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar), Maharashtra
When: About 600 to 1000 CE
Who: The Kailasa Temple is credited to the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I
Style: Rock-cut Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves
Made with: Basalt cliff

34 caves of three religions side by side along one cliff, which shows how the faiths lived together. The star is the Kailasa Temple (Cave 16), a whole temple to Shiva cut downward out of a single mass of rock, so nothing was built and everything was carved away. Inscribed in 1983.

Spot it by

A full multi-storey temple standing free inside a deep trench cut in the hillside (pictured).

Remember

Kailasa was carved from the top down, like a sculpture, not built from the ground up.

Don't confuse

Elephanta Caves near Mumbai are also rock-cut and also Shiva-centred, but they are a small group on an island with the giant three-headed Shiva.

Taj Mahal

Where: Agra, Uttar Pradesh, on the Yamuna river
When: Built about 1631 to 1648
Who: Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, for his wife Mumtaz Mahal; chief architect usually named as Ustad Ahmad Lahori
Style: Mughal (Indo-Islamic) tomb
Made with: White marble inlaid with coloured stones

A tomb built by a grieving emperor, now the best-known building in India. The tomb sits at the end of a large garden divided into four parts, with a mosque on one side and a matching guest hall on the other. Inscribed in 1983.

Spot it by

White marble, an onion-shaped dome and four free-standing minarets at the corners.

Remember

Taj is in Agra with Agra Fort, and both were listed on the same day in 1983.

Don't confuse

Bibi ka Maqbara in Aurangabad looks like a smaller copy but isn't a World Heritage Site. Humayun's Tomb in Delhi is the red sandstone tomb that came before the Taj.

A giant carved stone wheel with spokes, set into the side of a temple wall covered in carvings. — Picture: Ankur Panchbudhe. CC BY 2.0.

Sun Temple, Konark

Also called Black Pagoda

Where: Konark, near Puri, Odisha
When: 13th century
Who: King Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty
Style: Kalinga (Odisha) temple architecture
Made with: Stone

The whole temple is designed as the chariot of Surya, the Sun god, with 24 carved stone wheels and seven stone horses pulling it. European sailors used its dark tower as a landmark and called it the Black Pagoda. Inscribed in 1984.

Spot it by

The huge spoked stone wheels on the base (pictured). The same temple is on the back of the 10-rupee note.

Remember

Sun god, chariot, 24 wheels, 7 horses.

A long rock face carved with hundreds of gods, people and animals, with two life-size elephants on the right. — Picture: Bernard Gagnon. CC BY-SA 3.0.

Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram

Also called Mamallapuram

Where: Coast of Tamil Nadu, south of Chennai
When: 7th and 8th centuries
Who: The Pallava dynasty
Style: Early Dravidian rock-cut and built temples
Made with: Granite

A seaside group of temples from the Pallava kings. It has rathas (temples shaped like chariots, each cut from one rock), cave halls, the Shore Temple by the sea, and the Descent of the Ganges, one of the largest open-air rock carvings in the world. Inscribed in 1984.

Spot it by

The giant relief with life-size elephants and a cleft down the middle where water was meant to flow (pictured).

Remember

The relief has two names: Descent of the Ganges and Arjuna's Penance.

A carved stone shrine shaped like a chariot with stone wheels and stone elephants in front, in a temple courtyard. — Picture: Ram Nagesh Thota. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Group of Monuments at Hampi

Where: On the Tungabhadra river, Karnataka
When: 14th to 16th centuries
Who: The Vijayanagara Empire
Style: Dravidian temples, with some Indo-Islamic palace buildings
Made with: Granite

The ruins of Vijayanagara, once one of the richest cities in the world. It was sacked and abandoned after the empire lost a battle to the Deccan Sultanates in 1565. The site was on UNESCO's danger list from 1999 to 2006. Inscribed in 1986.

Spot it by

The stone chariot in the Vittala Temple courtyard (pictured), which is also on the back of the 50-rupee note.

Remember

Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire.

Don't confuse

Pattadakal and Badami, also in Karnataka, are older Chalukya temples. Belur and Halebidu are Hoysala.

A tall sandstone temple whose roofline rises in a cluster of curved peaks, behind green bushes. — Picture: China Crisis. CC BY-SA 3.0.

Khajuraho Group of Monuments

Where: Chhatarpur district, Madhya Pradesh
When: About 950 to 1050 CE
Who: The Chandela dynasty
Style: Nagara (north Indian) temples, Hindu and Jain
Made with: Sandstone

About two dozen surviving temples, out of many more that once stood. They are famous for walls covered in sculpture: gods, dancers, musicians, warriors and loving couples. The largest is the Kandariya Mahadeva Temple. Inscribed in 1986.

Spot it by

Curved towers (shikharas) that climb in a series of smaller peaks, like a mountain range (pictured).

Remember

Chandelas built Khajuraho; the style is Nagara.

A very tall tapering tower of red and buff sandstone with balconies and bands of carved writing. — Picture: Wasir kasab. CC BY 4.0.

Qutb Minar and its Monuments

Where: Mehrauli, Delhi
When: Begun about 1200 CE
Who: Started by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, the first Delhi Sultan, and continued by Iltutmish
Style: Early Indo-Islamic
Made with: Red and buff sandstone, with marble in the top storeys

A victory tower 72.5 metres tall, among the earliest Islamic buildings in India. The complex around it includes the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, the Alai Darwaza gateway and the Iron Pillar, which has stood for about 1,600 years with hardly any rust. Inscribed in 1993.

Spot it by

A fluted tower with five storeys, each ringed by a balcony, and bands of carved Arabic script (pictured).

Remember

Delhi has three sites: Qutb Minar, Humayun's Tomb and the Red Fort.

A deep stone stepwell with many levels of pillared galleries going down into the ground. — Picture: Bernard Gagnon. CC BY-SA 3.0.

Rani-ki-Vav

Also called The Queen's Stepwell

Where: Patan, Gujarat
When: 11th century
Who: Built in memory of King Bhima I of the Chaulukya (Solanki) dynasty, traditionally credited to his queen Udayamati
Style: Stepwell, designed like an upside-down temple
Made with: Stone

A stepwell is a well you walk down into, by flights of steps, to reach water. This one goes down seven levels and is lined with hundreds of carved gods and figures. Floods buried it in silt for centuries, which kept the carvings safe until it was dug out. Inscribed in 2014.

Spot it by

Rows of pillared galleries stepping down into the earth (pictured). It is on the back of the lavender 100-rupee note.

Remember

Rani-ki-Vav means the queen's stepwell.

The pink, many-windowed front of the Hawa Mahal in Jaipur, rising in a honeycomb of small balconies. — Picture: Chainwit. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Jaipur City

Also called The Pink City

Where: Rajasthan
When: Founded in 1727
Who: Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II
Style: Planned city on a grid of wide streets
Made with: Lime-plastered buildings painted pink

A walled city planned from scratch, with straight streets, market rows and city squares, unlike the winding lanes of older towns. It was listed in 2019, the second Indian city after Ahmedabad. The Jantar Mantar observatory, built by the same king, is a separate site listed in 2010.

Spot it by

The Hawa Mahal (pictured), a pink screen of small windows that let palace women watch the street unseen.

Remember

Jaipur has two sites: the walled city (2019) and the Jantar Mantar (2010). Amber Fort is part of a third, the Hill Forts of Rajasthan.

A prayer hall at night with walls of coloured glass in flower patterns, and people seated in front. — Picture: Jitu-saswata mondal. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Santiniketan

Where: Birbhum district, West Bengal
When: Ashram from 1863; school from 1901; Visva-Bharati University from 1921
Who: Debendranath Tagore and his son Rabindranath Tagore
Style: University town of open-air classes and buildings of many styles

A quiet ashram that Rabindranath Tagore turned into a school and then a university where students learnt under trees, close to nature. Its art school, Kala Bhavana, trained artists such as Ramkinkar Baij and was led by Nandalal Bose. Inscribed in 2023.

Spot it by

The Upasana Griha, a prayer hall with walls of coloured glass (pictured).

Remember

Santiniketan and the Hoysala temples were both listed in 2023.

Don't confuse

Shantiniketan, Santiniketan: the same place, spelt two ways.

A low, richly carved stone temple with three short towers on a raised stone platform. — Picture: Dineshkannambadi at English Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 3.0.

Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas

Where: Belur, Halebidu and Somanathapura, Karnataka
When: 12th and 13th centuries
Who: The Hoysala kings
Style: Hoysala temples, mixing southern and northern ideas
Made with: Soapstone, which is soft enough for very fine carving

Three temples famous for carving so fine it looks like jewellery: the Chennakeshava Temple at Belur, the Hoysaleswara Temple at Halebidu and the Keshava Temple at Somanathapura (pictured). They usually stand on star-shaped platforms. Inscribed in 2023.

Spot it by

Low, spreading temples on a raised star-shaped base, with bands of tiny carved elephants, horses and scenes running round the walls.

Remember

Hoysala temples: Belur, Halebidu, Somanathapura, all in Karnataka.

A large grassy mound shaped like a small hill, among tall trees, with a paved path in front. — Picture: BhuyanBhaskar. CC BY 4.0.

Moidams of Charaideo

Also called Moidams, the Mound-Burial System of the Ahom Dynasty

Where: Charaideo district, Assam
When: Over the six centuries of Ahom rule, 1228 to 1826
Who: The Ahom kings and nobles
Style: Royal burial mounds
Made with: A vault topped by a mound of earth, now grassed over

Charaideo was the first capital of the Ahom kingdom, and its royals were buried here under earth mounds that rise like small hills. Inscribed in 2024 at the World Heritage Committee meeting held in New Delhi.

Spot it by

Rows of grassy, dome-shaped mounds in woodland (pictured). They are sometimes called the pyramids of Assam.

Remember

Moidams: Ahom, Assam, 2024.

A massive round brick and stone stupa, like a short thick tower, standing in a wide green lawn. — Picture: GONG JIE. CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ancient Buddhist Site of Sarnath

Where: Near Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
When: 3rd century BCE to the 12th century CE, plus the Chaukhandi Stupa
Who: Buddhist communities over many centuries, starting under Emperor Ashoka
Style: Stupas, monasteries and temple ruins

The place where the Buddha gave his first sermon after his enlightenment. The site includes the Dhamek Stupa, monastery ruins, the remains of an Ashokan pillar and the Chaukhandi Stupa. The Lion Capital found here, now in the Sarnath museum, is India's national emblem. Inscribed in July 2026, it is India's newest site as of October 2026.

Spot it by

The Dhamek Stupa, a huge round tower of stone below and brick above (pictured).

Remember

Bodh Gaya is where the Buddha was enlightened (listed 2002); Sarnath is where he first taught (2026).

A one-horned rhinoceros standing on a forest track among trees. — Picture: Tisha Mukherjee. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Kaziranga National Park

Where: Assam, on the floodplain of the Brahmaputra
Style: Natural site: grassland, wetland and forest

Home to the largest population of the Indian one-horned rhinoceros in the world, along with tigers, elephants and wild water buffalo. The Brahmaputra floods it every year, which keeps its tall grasslands alive. Inscribed in 1985, among India's first natural sites.

Spot it by

The one-horned rhino with its armour-like folds of skin (pictured).

Remember

Kaziranga is in Assam, like Manas, India's other 1985 natural site in the state.

Don't confuse

Jim Corbett is in Uttarakhand and Kanha is in Madhya Pradesh. Neither is a World Heritage Site.

A huge snow-covered mountain face lit by sun, framed by dark rocky slopes. — Picture: Ashinpt at enwiki. CC BY-SA 3.0.

Khangchendzonga National Park

Where: Sikkim
Style: Mixed site: natural and cultural

A park built around Kangchenjunga, at 8,586 metres the third-highest mountain in the world. It is listed for its glaciers, forests and wildlife, and also because local communities hold the mountain and its valleys sacred. Inscribed in 2016.

Spot it by

Snow peaks of the eastern Himalaya seen from Sikkim (pictured).

Remember

India's one and only mixed site.

Worth one line each

Site	Remember it for
Elephanta Caves	Shiva caves on an island near Mumbai, with the giant three-headed Shiva
Great Living Chola Temples	The Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur and its tall pyramid tower
Group of Monuments at Pattadakal	Chalukya temples where northern and southern styles stand side by side
Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi	The Great Stupa and its carved gateways, on the back of the 200-rupee note
Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka	Prehistoric rock paintings of animals and hunters
Red Fort Complex	Shah Jahan's red sandstone palace-fort in Delhi, on the back of the 500-rupee note
Dholavira	A Harappan city in Kutch with clever water tanks and reservoirs
Ramappa Temple	A 13th-century Kakatiya Shiva temple in Telangana, named after its sculptor
Sundarbans	The largest mangrove forest in the world, home of the Bengal tiger
Western Ghats	A mountain chain along the west coast, one of the world's richest places for wildlife
Maratha Military Landscapes	Twelve forts linked to Chhatrapati Shivaji, listed in 2025

On your banknotes

The banknotes issued since 2016 (the Mahatma Gandhi New Series) show World Heritage Sites on the back. It's an easy way to remember them.

Note	Site on the back
10 rupees	Sun Temple, Konark
20 rupees	Ellora Caves
50 rupees	Hampi (the stone chariot)
100 rupees	Rani-ki-Vav
200 rupees	Sanchi Stupa
500 rupees	Red Fort

Test yourself

Question 1 of 8

Which World Heritage Site is this?

Question 2 of 8

Which of these is Rani-ki-Vav?

Question 3 of 8

This stone chariot stands in the old capital of which empire?

Question 4 of 8

Which of these was among the first Indian sites inscribed, in 1983?

Question 5 of 8

Which is India's only mixed World Heritage Site?

Question 6 of 8

These grassy mounds in Assam are the royal burials of which dynasty?

Question 7 of 8

Which Indian city was the first to be listed as a whole historic city?

Question 8 of 8

Which of these belongs to the site added to the list in 2026?

From past papers

Real exam questions on this topic, each with a full solution.

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