Chandigarh

👥 1.2M population📐 Le Corbusier designed by UNESCO Capitol Complex

India's first planned city, drawn from scratch by Le Corbusier: numbered sectors, wide green avenues, cycle tracks and raw-concrete landmarks at the foot of the Shivaliks. The cleanest, calmest city in the north, plus Nek Chand's famous Rock Garden.

Highlights

Le Corbusier CentreThe architect's museum

Leisure ValleyAn 8-kilometer river of parks

Sukhna LakeThe city's natural heart

Chandigarh Bird ParkMacaws crossing overhead inside a netted aviary, ten minutes from Sukhna

Sector 17 PlazaThe city's pedestrian heart

Capitol ComplexA UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Rose Garden

What to see 40

Le Corbusier CentreThe architect's museumDetails →

Leisure ValleyAn 8-kilometer river of parksDetails →

Sukhna LakeThe city's natural heartDetails →

Chandigarh Bird ParkMacaws crossing overhead inside a netted aviary, ten minutes from SukhnaDetails →

Sector 17 PlazaThe city's pedestrian heartDetails →

Government Museum and Art GalleryLe Corbusier's other buildingDetails →

Gandhi Bhawan, Panjab UniversityPerhaps the quietest, most beautiful modernist building here, hidden on a campus lawnDetails →

International Dolls MuseumDolls from twenty-five countries in one room of glass cases, and a toy train running past themDetails →

Rock GardenA garden made of wasteDetails →

Gurudwara Amb SahibA shrine grown around a mango tree and its out-of-season fruitDetails →

Gurudwara Nada SahibGuru Gobind Singh's riverside halt, twenty minutes from Sukhna LakeDetails →

Chandi MandirMeet the goddess whose fort the whole city is named after, 15 km up the Kalka roadDetails →

Jayanti Devi TempleA centuries-old hill shrine with the widest countryside view this near the cityDetails →

Mata Mansa Devi MandirThe living, crowded counterweight to the concrete geometry of the planned cityDetails →

Butterfly Park, Sector 26A park planted for insects rather than for looks, and hardly anyone knows itDetails →

Garden of SilenceSukhna's quiet ending: still water, a Buddha and almost nobody there at dawnDetails →

Japanese GardenPagodas, waterfalls and a painted tunnel, ten minutes from the centreDetails →

Pinjore GardensA Mughal garden day tripDetails →

Krishna Market, Sector 41Everyday Chandigarh at full volume, in a market the city kept for itselfDetails →

Patel Market, Sector 15Campus fashion at campus prices, five minutes from Gandhi BhawanDetails →

Capital Book DepotA hundred thousand titles and a coffee corner: the city's longest browseDetails →

The English Book ShopBuying a book here means joining a habit as old as Chandigarh itselfDetails →

The BrowserPart shop, part library, part publisher: arguably the coziest independent in townDetails →

1469 OriginalPunjabi heritage made wearable: embroidery and wit hanging on the same rackDetails →

PhulkariFixed-price phulkari with a state label: souvenirs without the guessworkDetails →

Nexus Elante MallAir conditioning, a cinema and 300 shops for the day the weather cancels sightseeingDetails →

Capitol ComplexA UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Rose Garden

Fateh Burj, Chappar ChiriIndia's tallest victory tower, and barely a visitor from out of state on the steps

Chandigarh Architecture Museum (City Museum)Watch an entire city being argued into existence, on paper and then in concrete

Pierre Jeanneret House MuseumStand in the living room of the man who furnished an entire city

ISKCON Sri Sri Radha Madhav TempleEvening kirtan inside the grid city; come for the aarti hour, not the afternoon

National Cactus and Succulent Botanical GardenAsia's biggest cactus collection, a short drive out towards the foothills

Siswan Dam and Community ReserveThe tricity's favourite dawn birding spot, still absent from every tourist route

Morni Hills and Tikkar TaalThe nearest real ridges to the city: a fort, two lakes and pine air in half a day

Sukhna Wildlife SanctuaryThe Nepli and Kansal treks: one permit and a forest gate turn the grid city into a jungle walk

Chhatbir Zoo (Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park)A caged-bus lion safari, and no long drive to a national park required

Kalagram Crafts VillageIn mela season the best craft shopping in the whole tricity happens here

Sadar Bazaar, Sector 19Where the strict grid loosens up: cloth by the metre, phulkari and obligatory haggling

Shastri MarketIn Sector 22, where the city actually shops

Everything about Chandigarh

On the map

40 places · the full map is in the app