Rock Garden Chandigarh: The Best Attraction Of City Beautiful

Rock Garden Chandigarh, a mosaic garden with sculptures is one of the prime tourist locations in the City Beautiful. Nek Chand Saini, a government official is the founder of this beautiful rock garden and it’s also known as Nek Chand’s rock garden. In the year 1957, Nek Chand in his spare time started constructing this garden.

This garden is spread in the area of 40 acres today. The specialty of this garden is that it’s built out of completely home waste and discarded items. This is basically the best out of waste created in a beautiful manner. 

The Rock Garden of Chandigarh is located in Sector 1 of Chandigarh and sits along with Sukhna Lake. The sculptures and pathways built in this garden comprise of waste like broken bangles, tiles, broken pipes, bottles, glasses, sinks, and electrical wastes. This garden also consists of an open-air exhibition hall and various food markets.

A variety of man-made interlinked waterfalls and walking through the garden is a true delight in itself. This garden comprises of around 5000 statues, terracotta pots, toilet pots in artistic style and light fixtures.

It’s been 62 years since the birth of the garden and all the sculptures and art are still standing tall, adding to the beauty and novelty of the City Beautiful Chandigarh.

The timings to visit this garden is 9:00 A.M – 7:00 P.M ( April – September ), 9:00 A.M – 6:00 P.M ( October – March ). The whole tour of the garden can be covered in approximately 4-5 hours. 

Some of the major attractions in the Rock Garden are as follows:

• The Wishing Well- This is one of the main attractions in the Rock Garden. This is just a small well-like shaped ditch filled up with water but for tourists, it’s no less than a wish well. They trip coins into the well for the good luck and feel positive after doing that. This is an amazing feeling in itself. Above this is attached a pulley with rope and a bucket to give it a proper well look. This is a pure significance of art in itself.  

 

• Waterfalls- Waterfalls are something that attracts every age group of tourists in this garden. Birds soaring high above the waterfalls add to the scenic beauty of this spot. People are always spotted clicking pictures here and spending quality time with their loved ones. Children enjoy the fullest here as it consists of small dark tunnels too and abstract tree branches twirling around the buildings and sculptures. There are small interlinked waterfalls and one can spot various ponds along the pathways. The flowery trees adjoining ponds give an absolute beauty and the ponds are always filled up with flowers. There’s always a refreshed and relaxed feeling visiting here.

 

• Disfigured Mirror Maze- Tourists are the happiest in this room. This room consists of abstract mirrors that change the shape of a human body’s reflection into tall, short, slim, fat or spiral. Children are spotted laughing and having a good time here. They see themselves making funny faces in the mirror and smile. 

 

• Swings- Huge swings are installed in the open area of the garden. People are spotted there having fun while enjoying the rides with their loved ones. There are more than 15 swings present in the garden, still, we can always spot people in a queue for their turn. Snacking and enjoying the swing together is always a good feeling here. 

 

• Open-air theatre- The theatre is a large area that organizes various exhibitions and festivals in Chandigarh. The sitting is made up in the form of stairs that are built from the different colored tiles and people usually get colored photographs clicked here. Various art exhibitions, the Mango festival in summers and the Teej festival are celebrated here. Children often visit here as a part of their school trips during the festival season. There are numerous food stalls here and tourists can enjoy every kind of Punjabi flavor food here in this garden. 

 

• Bangle Sculptures- Sculptures of women made up of broken bangles are installed here. These sculptures shine a lot when the direct sun rays are reflected upon them. The different colored glass bangles light up and display the absolute work of art. There are sculptures which also depict women carrying pots of water on their head just like the earlier times in the village areas. 

 

• Pottery- Different styles and shapes of pots are present here that constitute tall sculptures when kept on top of each other. The red-bricked color of the pots is an amazing delight to the eyes. These are minutely carved into well-formed artistic pieces. One can spot these pots throughout the pathway from the entrance to the exit path. 

 

The Rock Garden attracts roughly around 5000 tourists on a daily basis. There have been more than 12 million tourist visits in this garden since the inception of this garden. The whole maintenance of the garden is done by the Rock Garden Committee and one can always find the garden clean and beautiful.

Numerous dustbins are kept in the whole tour of the garden so as to keep the surrounding litter-free. This beautiful creation of Nek Chand is an absolute beauty of Chandigarh which is to be preserved and maintained by the people itself. The garden is most famous for its sculptures made up of recycled ceramics.

One can always plan a family day outing or picnics, school trips here or someone who is visiting Chandigarh for the first time can surely plan a trip to this garden in his itinerary. Spending quality time here is a memory worth a lifetime. “Best out of Waste” is the perfect line to describe this garden.

Nek Chand secretly kept on building this garden since 1957 and somewhere after 18 years, this garden came into limelight. In the year 1976, this garden was officially opened for the public and it instantly became a major tourist attraction in Chandigarh.  Although his work was illegal and authorities had even planned to demolish the garden, but the creativity and unique concept of this garden won the heart of the local people residing here and hence it was saved by the support of local people.

People went awe after looking at the beauty of the newly constructed garden. Nek Chand was given a salary under the title of Sub-divisional engineer and 50 workers were appointed for a full-time job for the maintenance of this garden. From a government official, Road Inspector to a sub-divisional engineer, his journey has been amazing.

Starting from 13 acres of land back then, this garden is spread over 40 acres of land today with all the basic facilities included in the whole garden. 

There is also a Dolls Museum comprising of 200 dolls made up of rag cloth. This museum was inaugurated on the second death anniversary of its founder Nek Chand. This inauguration was done by the UT Administrator V.P. Singh Badnore. These dolls were made by Nek Chand himself in the 1970s. 

Rock Garden, Chandigarh’s entry fee is Rs 30 for adults and Rs 10 for children. The rates kept here are very genuine so that every class of people can afford a visit here and enjoy the beautiful art of work. 

This garden is located in the heart of the city and various other tourist spots such as Sukhna Lake, Garden of Silence, Rose Garden and shopping centers are just nearby to this garden. After the visit to this Rock Garden during the daytime, one can enjoy the boating in Sukhna Lake too which is just walking distance from the Rock Garden.

Proper parking space for vehicles is built outside the garden so as to park the vehicles in an arranged manner. There is never a traffic jam or chaos outside the Rock Garden due to its proper and efficient design.

The entrance and exits of the garden are also constructed out of rocks and there is always a proper line for the availability of the tickets. A separate line for women and men is there at the ticket counter section.

A memorial stone is also placed in the memory of its founder Nek Chand at the entrance of this garden. From decorated walls in the garden to dancing girls’ sculptures, and from waterfalls to the open-air theatre, this garden is a one-stop destination to enjoy every man-made art.

So are you planning a visit to Chandigarh- the City Beautiful any soon? Do add a visit to this beautiful garden in your travel bucket list when you visit the city. Also, don’t forget to thank us later when you get some really beautiful captures for your Instagram feed.

Plan a trip here with your family, friends, relatives or even colleagues and you will have a perfect escape from your routine after a visit to this garden.