Famous Places in India Questions and Answers

Answer: D

It is Varanasi.

Also called Kashi and Benares, it stands on the Ganga and is among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Mark Twain wrote that it is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend.

Answer: C

The Vijay Stambha is at Chittorgarh.

Rana Kumbha built the nine-storey Tower of Victory between 1442 and 1449 to mark his defeat of Mahmud Khilji of Malwa. It stands 37 m high within the fort, and its sides are covered with sculptures of Hindu deities.

Answer: C

Golconda Fort is in Telangana.

It stands on the western edge of Hyderabad and was the capital of the Qutb Shahi kings. Famous for its diamond trade - the Koh-i-Noor passed through it - it also has acoustics that carry a handclap at the entrance to the citadel a kilometre above.

Answer: B

The Buland Darwaza is at Fatehpur Sikri.

Akbar raised the 54 m gateway in 1601 to commemorate his conquest of Gujarat. It is the highest gateway in the world, and its inscription records the saying that the world is a bridge: pass over it, but build no house upon it.

Answer: D

Udaipur is the White City.

Its palaces, havelis and temples are built or faced in white marble, and the city is set among lakes - which has also earned it the name Venice of the East. Jodhpur is the Blue City and Jaipur the Pink.

Answer: C

Shah Jahan built it.

The Moti Masjid, or Pearl Mosque, inside Agra Fort was completed in 1653 in white marble. He built a mosque of the same name at Lahore, and Aurangzeb another in the Red Fort at Delhi.

Answer: A

Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah built the Charminar.

The fifth Qutb Shahi sultan raised it in 1591 to mark the founding of Hyderabad, and by tradition to commemorate the end of a plague. Its four minarets rise 56 m over the arches that give it its name.

Answer: A

It was built at Thumba.

The Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station near Thiruvananthapuram was set up in 1962 and made its first launch in November 1963, chosen because the earth's magnetic equator passes over it. The first rocket parts were carried to the pad on a bicycle.

Answer: B

It is the Durand Line.

Sir Mortimer Durand drew it in 1893 between British India and Afghanistan, and it now divides Pakistan from Afghanistan. Afghanistan has never accepted it, because it cuts through Pashtun territory.

Answer: A

Uttar Pradesh receives the most domestic tourists.

Agra, Varanasi, Mathura and Ayodhya together draw a very large number of visits each year, and the state has led the domestic tourism figures for most of the past decade. Maharashtra leads in foreign arrivals.