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The 'Capital Complex', a UNESCO World Heritage Site designed by Le Corbusier, is located in:
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Answer: Option B — Chandigarh
Detailed Solution
The Capital Complex is located in Sector 1 of Chandigarh, at the northern end of the city, against the backdrop of the Shivalik hills.
About the Capital Complex:
It was designed by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier in the 1950s and 1960s, as the government centre of the new city of Chandigarh.
It has three main buildings:
- The Palace of Assembly (Legislative Assembly): houses the legislative assemblies of Punjab and Haryana.
- The Secretariat: the largest building in the complex, housing the offices of the governments of Punjab and Haryana.
- The High Court: the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
It also has several monuments:
The "Open Hand Monument": a large metal sculpture of an open hand that turns with the wind. It symbolises "open to give, open to receive" and is the emblem of Chandigarh.
The "Tower of Shadows", the "Geometric Hill" and the "Martyrs' Memorial".
The buildings are made of exposed concrete (a style called "Brutalism" or "béton brut") and use features like sun-breakers (brise-soleil) to cope with the hot climate.
In 2016, the Capital Complex was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of "The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement", which includes 17 sites in seven countries on three continents.
About Chandigarh:
- It was planned after independence to be the new capital of Punjab, because the old capital, Lahore, went to Pakistan in 1947.
- Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru called it "unfettered by the traditions of the past, a symbol of the nation's faith in the future".
- It was planned by Le Corbusier along with Pierre Jeanneret, Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, after the original planner Albert Mayer (with Matthew Nowicki) left the project.
- It became a Union Territory in 1966 and is the capital of both Punjab and Haryana.
- It is called the "City Beautiful".
- Other attractions include the Rock Garden (created by Nek Chand from waste materials), Sukhna Lake and the Rose Garden (Zakir Hussain Rose Garden).
Why not the other options?
- ✗Gandhinagar is the planned capital of Gujarat.
- ✗Bhubaneswar is the planned capital of Odisha.
- ✗New Delhi was planned by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker.
Quick tip
Remember: Capital Complex = Chandigarh (Le Corbusier; Assembly, Secretariat, High Court; Open Hand Monument; UNESCO 2016); Chandigarh = UT since 1966, capital of Punjab and Haryana; Rock Garden = Nek Chand.
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Monuments & Religious Places — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Monuments & Religious Places, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers India's important monuments, temples, mosques, churches, gurudwaras and pilgrimage sites, who built them and when, their architectural styles, and India's UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Questions ask who built a monument, where it is located, or which dynasty or style it belongs to. For example, the Qutub Minar was begun by Qutbuddin Aibak, and the Sun Temple at Konark was built by the Eastern Ganga king Narasimhadeva I. Revise the UNESCO World Heritage Sites as a list, noting the most recent additions. Practise the monuments and religious places questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.