Mind-blowing facts about Lucknow!

Fondly called the City of Nawabs, Lucknow has established its unique place with its tehzeeb (manners), grand architecture, beautiful gardens, delectable cuisine, and much more. It has a special appeal among travellers, and features a perfect blend of colonial charisma and aesthetics. And, if you think these are all that defines Lucknow, here are some mind-blowing facts about this city that you probably didn’t know about.

Did you know Lucknow’s Charbagh Railway station looks like a chess board? Yes, it’s a specimen of architectural genius designed by J. H. Horniman. The building comes complete with pillars and domes, apart from the little-known fact that it is also one of the country’s most beautiful railway stations. Another highlight of this station is that if viewed from above, it actually resembles a chess board with pieces that are engaged in a game.

Husainabad Clocktower, standing at an impressive height of 221 ft, boasts of being one of the country's tallest clock towers. The clock features a 14 ft pendulum and has been designed as a 12-petaled flower. Anyone visiting Lucknow, cannot miss it as it proudly stands right next to the Rumi Darwaza. It also serves as an apt example of Gothic and Victorian style architecture.

It’s an architectural marvel, and famed for being Asia's largest hall without any additional support of beams. Although it sounds impossible for such a massive structure to stand tall in the absence of pillars, it stands as its eight chambers were built in such a manner that all of them have a different roof height. Not to miss the space above and between these chambers, the popular bhulbhulaiyya (labyrinth) features 489 interconnecting identical doors.

Lucknow Race Course, which was established in 1880, is spread across an area of 70.22 acres, while the racing track is around 3200 m. Not only was it once the country’s longest race track, but was also the only track where races are run anticlockwise. As per the reports, the first recorded race that was held here was in 1883, the Civil Service Cup Race.

In 1960, India’s first STD call was made between Lucknow and Kanpur. Before this, the service was possible only via an operator.

Spread across an area of more than 376 acres, Janeshwar Mishra Park is famed for being Asia’s biggest park. It features two water bodies within the park, which attracts migratory birds, which further complements the scenic beauty of this park. As per the reports, there are also plans to elevate the amusement quotient of the park by introducing laser shows and a toy train.

The City Montessori School in the city has won the Guinness World Record for being the world’s largest school in terms of strength of students. If reports are to go by, the school was started with just five students, which then marched ahead to make a mark on the International Educational Map.

Known as the First CCTV City in India, Lucknow is the most monitored and highly surveilled city of the country. It got this tag for the fact that the city managed to excel in installing more than 9000 cameras way back in 2015, in order to manage road traffic and keep a check on street crime. While the road cameras installed were of supreme quality, which cost INR 1 lakh a piece, the city had cautionary boards signalling that the citizens were under strict surveillance, which helped to bring down both traffic violations and crime incidents.