A Guide to the Rock Garden of Chandigarh

Chandigarh, also known as “The City Beautiful,” is a city that perfectly blends modern architecture with green spaces. Designed by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, the city is renowned for its well-planned layout and beautiful parks. It serves as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana and is a major hub for business, education, and tourism.

Rock Garden of Chandigarh is a sculpture garden in Chandigarh, completely built of industrial and home discarded items like bottles, ceramic pots, bangles, broken pipes and etc.

About Rock Garden

Rock Garden; a wood and rock park fully fashioned from industrial and urban waste is one of the most attractive destinations in Chandigarh. It is situated in Sector-1, right in between the capital complex and Sukhna Lake.

Rock Garden Chandigarh spreads over 40 acres of woods, offering a vast fantasy of art perfectly mixed with amazing landscape to the tourists. Owing to its marvelous beauty and natural perfection, it remains one of the top tourist attractions in the state.

The garden is made mainly from rocks and boulders which are arranged in an awesome way to make some magnificent figures. Broken and cast away glass bangles, broken chinaware, discarded fluorescent tubes, building waste, etc. also are also used for shaping some artistic figures.

While walking through the Rock Garden, the visitors will be able to see various human figures like soldiers, women, children, etc. The miniature figures of palaces and temples, various animals like monkeys, sceneries that narrate pure village life, etc. are also made from the thrown-away wastes.

Natural Attractions at Rock Garden Chandigarh

Waterfalls and pools are natural attractions in the rock garden. There is an open air theater which is very artistic and naturalistic. Various performances are staged in this open theater.

The History and The Creator

The amazing Rock Garden Chandigarh was designed by Nek Chand. While he was working as a road inspector in the engineering department of the Chandigarh Capital Project, he used to roam the Shivalik foothills. There he was fascinated by seeing stones that resembled various figures including humans, animals and birds. Some of these stones even resembled some abstract forms.

He carried all these figure-resembling stones on his bicycle. It was the beginning point of Rock Garden. Various waste-items, including urban and industrial waste other than the rock-pieces, were collected in the first seven years i.e. from 1958 to 1965. As his collection grew, he deposited this huge collection; by then he had collected over 20,000 rock pieces alone, in a small hut which he had built for the purpose of his work.

This collection in the small hut was accidentally discovered on 24th of February, 1973 by Dr. S. K. Sharma, while heading an anti-malaria research party. The first Chief Commissioner of Chandigarh Dr. M.S Randhawa, realizing the importance of this collection, brought the matter before the Chandigarh Landscape Advisory Committee that was headed by him on 23rd of June, 1973. He was the chairman of the committee. Three years later i.e. in 1976, the Rock Garden was officially inaugurated.

How to reach Rock Garden

Rock Garden Chandigarh is located in Sector 1. It is at a distance of 1.5 km from another popular attraction, Sukhna Lake and can be reached via cabs and auto rickshaws.