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50 free Indian Monuments trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
India's monuments were raised by emperors, queens, sultans, nawabs and a colonial government, and nearly every one carries a second story: a stepwell printed on a banknote, a tower abandoned after its first storey, a statue whose cladding was cast abroad, a prison built like the spokes of a wheel. These 50 questions cover the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort, the Qutb complex and the caves of Ajanta and Ellora, Hampi, Khajuraho, Konark and Sanchi, the palaces of Mysore and Jaipur, the hill forts of Rajasthan, the great temples of the south, and the newer landmarks of Delhi, Mumbai and the Narmada: who built them, when, why, and what they are made of. Most are pitched for a pub table or a classroom, with a handful for people who have walked the ramparts themselves. Play on your phone with instant answers and explanations, or print it for a quiz night, a history class or a trip.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Mumbai waterfront landmark saw the last British troops leave the country in 1948?
Gateway of India
The Gateway of India was built to welcome the empire in and ended up waving it out: the Somerset Light Infantry marched through with a 21-gun salute on 28 February 1948. Its design was approved only in 1914 and finished in 1924.
Q 02Who was meant to watch Jaipur's streets unseen through the Hawa Mahal's 953 latticed windows?
Women of the royal household
Women of the royal household observed purdah, so the lattice was designed in 1799 to let them watch everyday life and festivals in the street below without being seen. The five-storey facade is shaped like a honeycomb.
Q 03Delhi's Lotus Temple, built from 27 marble-clad petals grouped into nine sides, serves which faith?
Baha'i
Baha'i houses of worship admit everyone and forbid sermons, so the Lotus Temple's hall hosts only readings of scripture. Iranian architect Fariborz Sahba designed it, and it opened to the public on 1 January 1987.
Q 04Whose statue filled India Gate's canopy in 2022, empty since George V's was removed in 1968?
Subhas Chandra Bose
Subhas Chandra Bose first appeared there as a hologram in January 2022, and the granite statue followed that September. The marble George V had been moved to Coronation Park in 1968, so the canopy stood empty for 54 years.
Q 05The Charminar, built in 1591 at the heart of Hyderabad, sits on the official emblem of which state?
Telangana
Telangana put the Charminar on its emblem beside the Kakatiya Kala Thoranam when the new state was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014. The monument is widely held to commemorate the end of a plague.
Q 06Which Indian banknote carries the Konark Sun Temple, the stone chariot of Odisha, on its reverse?
₹10
₹10 is the note the Sun Temple rides on, chosen to signify its place in India's cultural heritage. The temple is a 30-metre stone chariot with 24 carved wheels, each nearly 3.7 metres across.
Q 07What was British officer John Smith doing in 1819 when shown the entrance to Ajanta's Cave 10?
Hunting a tiger
Hunting a tiger led Smith of the 28th Cavalry to the caves on 28 April 1819, and he left his name and the date scratched on a wall painting. The 30 Buddhist caves had been cut between the 2nd century BCE and about 480 CE.
Q 08Where were the bronze panels that clad the 182-metre Statue of Unity cast?
China
China's Jiangxi Tongqing foundry cast the bronze panels for the world's tallest statue, which were shipped to the Narmada and fitted over a steel frame. It was inaugurated on Sadhu Bet island on 31 October 2018.
Q 09What is the 27-metre Samrat Yantra at Jaipur's Jantar Mantar, said to tell the time to two seconds?
A sundial
A sundial 27 metres tall casts a shadow that moves visibly, which is how the 'great king of instruments' reads Jaipur time so finely. The observatory's 19 instruments were completed in 1734 and listed by UNESCO in 2010.
Q 10What studs the walls and ceiling of Amer Fort's Sheesh Mahal so it glitters under candlelight?
Convex mirrors
Convex mirrors backed with coloured foil and paint cover the hall, so a little candlelight is thrown back from every surface. Raja Man Singh I began the fort in 1592, and it joined UNESCO's Hill Forts of Rajasthan listing in 2013.
Q 11Which building stands opposite the Taj Mahal's mosque purely to keep the complex symmetrical?
The Jawab
The Jawab, meaning 'answer', matches the red sandstone mosque across the platform but has no mihrab, so it was never used for prayer. Its floors carry inlaid patterns instead.
Q 12Which poet called the Taj Mahal 'a teardrop on the cheek of time'?
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore devoted two poems to Shah Jahan and the Taj Mahal; in one, a solitary tear 'would hang on the cheek of time in the form of this white and gleaming Taj Mahal'.
Q 13Which city gives its name to the Red Fort gate the prime minister speaks from every 15 August?
Lahore
Q 21Sanchi's Great Stupa, begun by Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE, is in which state's Raisen district?
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh holds the stupa on a hilltop above the town of Sanchi, where four carved toranas were added in the 1st century BCE. It is among the oldest stone structures in the country.
Q 22A Sanchi inscription credits a torana's carvings to the ivory-workers of which nearby ancient city?
Vidisha
Vidisha's ivory-workers signed their stone: the inscription reads 'The ivory-workers from Vidisha have done the carving.' The four toranas were added in the 1st century BCE, long after Ashoka's original mound.
Q 23Which stories predominate in Ajanta's murals, painted between the 2nd century BCE and about 480 CE?
Jataka
Lahore was a Mughal city when the fort rose in 1639, and its Lahori Gate has framed every Independence Day address since 1947. Shah Jahan commissioned the fort after moving his capital from Agra to Delhi.
Q 14Which sultan began a tower by the Qutb Minar meant to be twice its height, abandoned at one storey?
Alauddin Khalji
Alauddin Khalji planned a 145-metre Alai Minar, but work stopped at the 25-metre first-storey core soon after his death in 1316 and none of his successors took it up. The stump still stands in the complex.
Q 15Which sultan rebuilt the Qutb Minar's top after lightning struck in 1369, making it two storeys?
Firuz Shah Tughlaq
Firuz Shah Tughlaq replaced the damaged fourth storey with a smaller one and added a fifth, which is why the minaret has five storeys today. Lightning remains a standing hazard for a 72.5-metre tower.
Q 16Which 7th-century Hampi shrine to Shiva stayed in worship after the city was destroyed in 1565?
Virupaksha
Virupaksha's history runs unbroken from about the 7th century CE, so it outlived the empire that enlarged it and remains the one gathering place of Hindus among the ruins. It stands on the bank of the Tungabhadra.
Q 17Which avatar of Vishnu does Hampi's 6.7-metre monolith, carved seated in a yoga posture, depict?
Narasimha
Narasimha, Vishnu's man-lion form, sits 6.7 metres tall in a yoga posture, and the damage done to the monolith still shows. Vishnu took that shape to kill the demon Hiranyakashipu, who could be slain by neither man nor beast.
Q 18Which dynasty built the Khajuraho temples, famed for their erotic carvings, between 885 and 1000?
Chandela
Chandela kings raised the temples in their Bundelkhand heartland, and the largest survivor, Kandariya Mahadeva, dates from the reign of King Vidyadhara. The site is in Chhatarpur district.
Q 19Historical records list 85 temples at Khajuraho by the 12th century; roughly how many still stand?
About 25
About 25 survive of the 85, spread over some six square kilometres in western, eastern and southern groups. The western group holds the biggest and best-known shrines.
Q 20How many horses are carved pulling the stone chariot of Odisha's Konark Sun Temple?
Seven
Seven horses pull the 30-metre chariot, and each of its 24 carved wheels is nearly 3.7 metres across. The whole temple was conceived as the chariot of the sun god Surya.
Jataka legends describe the previous births of the Buddha, and the painters told them at such length that the caves read like a picture library of the canon. Thirty caves were cut in two phases, the later one under the Vakataka kings.
Q 24Which Ellora temple, Cave 16, was cut from a single rock under the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I?
Kailasa
Kailasa was excavated rather than built, the masons working down through the basalt so that the finished temple stands free inside its own quarry. Krishna I reigned from 756 to 773.
Q 25Ellora's 34 caves were cut by followers of Buddhism, Hinduism and which third faith?
Jainism
Jainism claims the last five caves, numbers 30 to 34, after 12 Buddhist and 17 Hindu ones, so a walk along the cliff moves through three religions in order. The caves lie 29 km northwest of Aurangabad.
Q 26Which dynasty ruled the Kingdom of Mysore from the palace Henry Irwin completed in 1912?
Wadiyar
Wadiyar rulers made the palace their official residence and the seat of the Kingdom of Mysore, and the complex is lit by roughly 100,000 bulbs on each of the nine nights of Navaratri.
Q 27What destroyed the old wooden palace at Mysore in 1897, prompting Henry Irwin's replacement?
A fire after a wedding
A fire after a wedding, the ceremony of Jayalakshmi Ammanni, gutted the northern part of the old palace. Construction of the replacement began the same year and finished in 1912.
Q 28Which fifth ruler of Hyderabad's founding dynasty built the Charminar in 1591 as a plague ended?
Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah
Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah had just moved his capital from the old fortress to his new city of Hyderabad, and the Charminar went up at its centre. Each of its four minarets rises 56 metres with a double balcony.
Q 29Which architect of New Delhi designed India Gate, inscribed with 13,300 names of the war dead?
Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens modelled the gate on Roman triumphal arches, and it honours 74,187 Indian Army soldiers who died between 1914 and 1921, far more than the names it has room for.
Q 30Which sculptor designed the Statue of Unity, inaugurated on Sadhu Bet island on 31 October 2018?
Ram V. Sutar
Ram V. Sutar designed the 182-metre figure, the tallest statue in the world, which faces the Narmada Dam from 3.2 km away. Its island base sits in the river itself.