Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

Rajpath, India

Sunday, 31st July 2005 by James

Please note that some or all of the objects mentioned in this post are no longer visible on Google Earth or Google Maps.

Updated Post

The Rashtrapati Bhavan is the Official residence of the President of India. At the back of the building you can see the 13 acre gardens with Mughal style canals and fountains.

To the east is the Rajpath (’Kings Way’). Along the Rajpath there is the Republic Day Parade, an annual celebration of the adoption of the Constitution in 1950. As there is not much crowed along the road this could be the dress rehearsal of the parade which is held on the 24th of January each year. The parade starts here and you can follow it all the way along to the India Gate, a memorial built in commemoration of Indian soldiers who died in World War I and the Afghan Wars.

As the procession continues past the India Gate you can see an aeroplane on the north-west side of the roundabout, and on the north-east side the large cylindrical object is apparently a AGNI-II, an intermediate range ballistic missile.

Thanks: Sathish, Bill Kendrick, Manoj Govindan, donald, Ashutosh Rajekar, Ananya Gupta, Sarathy, Clint, Ashok M & DDA

12 Responses to 'Rajpath, India'

  1. 1. DDA says:

    NEW GAME !

    For the first time, I think we can precisely date this picture.

    The picture was taken January 26, few minutes after 10 AM.

    Who can be more precise ? I can’t find the year. Who can ?

    For the date : http://www.geocities.com/gthaliath/pages/rday.htm
    For the hour, look at the shadows and the text above : “The magnificent procession started at exactly 10 am”

  2. 2. Jacob says:

    If this is an image of India’s Republic Day Parade then it would explain the plane.

  3. 3. Twombly says:

    It sure looks like a parade to me! VERY cool!

    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

  4. 4. Luke says:

    If it is a parade, I don’t see people or at least they aren’t very clear in the picture.

  5. 5. ajith says:

    Judging from the low crowd, it could be one of the many rehearsals of the R-Day parade.

  6. 6. Ashutosh Rajekar says:

    To the north-west corner of the Amar Jawan edifice, you do see an TAAL Trainer; however to the north-east corner of the Amar Jawan edifice, that longish cylindrical thing that is being towed is actually AGNI-II, an INTERMEDIATE RANGE BALLISTIC MISSILE :)

    This photograph was most probably taken on the 24th of January 2005 or so - the full dress rehearsal for the 2005 Republic Day parade (held on the 26th of January).

    Regards,
    Ashutosh

  7. 7. Infinity says:

    Umm I think your NorthEast and NorthWest’s are mixxed up…

  8. 8. James says:

    Oh yeah… Thanks infinity.

  9. 9. David says:

    If you pan to the west, to just beyond the upper row of blue-roofed buildings, you can see the staging area for the parade vehicles. They’re parked facing north, ready to go around the fountain (?) and turn south to the parade route where they turn to the east.

  10. 10. Vivek says:

    New hi-res images of Indian cities: Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad are now available via Google Earth (not uet propogated to Google Maps).

  11. 11. gaurav says:

    its good work done by gearth team,it is simpley supreb and it would be great if they could provide pictures of other cities like Jaipur, Udaipur and Jodhpur etc.

  12. 12. suman says:

    it is very great to see this technology.it is really fantastic ,to see every corner of the world sitting at one place.hats of to google team.

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