{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tourist_attractions_in_Kolkata"}
Kolkata (also known as Calcutta) is currently the third-most populous metropolitan city in India after Mumbai and Delhi.

Museums and libraries
The courtyards and gardens inside the Indian Museum
The privately owned Marble Palace
The facade of Jorasanko Thakur Bari
Science City
Birla Industrial & Technological Museum
National Library
New building of the Asiatic Society
Metcalfe Hall

Heritage administrative offices
Facade of the Calcutta High Court
The facade of the Raj Bhavan
Town Hall
A panoramic view of Writers' Building in Central Kolkata
The General Post Office (GPO) in Kolkata

Historic hotels
The Great Eastern Hotel (officially Lalit Great Eastern Hotel) was founded as the Auckland Hotel in 1841, at the crossroads of the Hemanta Basu Sarani and British India Street, founded by confectioner David Wilson and named after the then Governor General Lord Auckland. It grew from strength to strength over the 19th and first half of the 20th century. Locally known as "Wilson's Hotel", it was also known as "Auckland Hotel and the "Hall of Nations" in the 19th century, and was referred to as the "Japani Hotel" (Japanese Hotel) colloquially in the 20th century, due to a large number of Japanese tourists there. The hotel was extremely elite, referred to as the "Jewel of the East" and "the best hotel East of the Suez" by Mark Twain on his voyage along the Equator, and described by Rudyard Kipling in "The City of Dreadful Night". It had notable board members like the author Peary Chand Mitra and stockholders like W. C. Bonnerjee - president of the Indian National Congress. The hotel was famous for its new year parties thrown by Maharajahs (like the Maharajah of Cooch Behar) until the 1950s. It has been host to such notables as Elizabeth II on her India visit, Nikita Khrushchev's delegation in the 1950s, and visiting international cricket teams. The hotel kitchens, staffed by the legendary Baruahs of Chittagong (now in Bangladesh), was the talk of Kolkata. It steadily progressed downhill since the 1970s, and was taken over by the Government of West Bengal in 1975 on grounds of insolvency. Labour union problems caused the hotel to worsen until a sensationalist news campaign by The Telegraph exposed the sorry state of the hotel in the 1990s. The hotel was privatized in November 2005 with the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers and has been re-christened The Lalit Great Eastern Kolkata. After an extensive restoration, a part of the property was reopened in November 2013. The Lalit Great Eastern offers 244 rooms and suites along with four restaurants and bars, the largest conference and banqueting facility in Kolkata, besides all other five-star deluxe facilities and services.

The Grand Hotel had humble beginnings. In the 1870s Mrs. Annie Monk opened her boarding house at numbers 13, 14 and 15 Chowringhee. In the meantime, Arathoon Stephen, an Armenian from Isfahan had arrived in Calcutta and proceeded to make his fortune in the jewellery business. By the early 20th century he had put together a sizeable fortune and had purchased numbers 16 and 17 Chowringhee. Soon he purchased Mrs. Monk's boarding house and number 18 Chowringhee as well, and proceeded to develop all the properties together into the hotel that came to be known as the Grand Hotel.

The Grand Hotel had humble beginnings as Mrs. Monte's Boarding House at 13, Jawahar Lal Nehru Road. Acquired by the real-estate baron Arrathoon Stephen, it turned into a 3-story 500-room hotel. Acquired by hotelier Mohan Singh Oberoi in 1938, it became the Oberoi Grand. The hotel got a major lift during World War II when about 4000 soldiers were billeted there and would party regularly. Events like the U.S. Marines' Ball at the hotel remind visitors of such times.

City parks
Maidan means "field" in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali. The Kolkata Maidan was once a vast uninterrupted field, right down to the edge of the Hoogli River, but is being encroached upon by the city and is fragmented by roads. The Maidan has nurtured sports like Polo and has been the home of equestrianism, horse racing, football, cricket and rugby in Kolkata. It houses numerous clubs including the "big three" of Indian football - Mohun Bagan Athletic Club, East Bengal Football Club and Mohammedan Sporting Club along with their respective home stadiums. The arterial Jawaharlal Nehru Road, the Eden Gardens, the Millennium Park and the associated 3 km long Riverfront beautification project border the Maidan. The Maidan abounds with monuments and statues, the most famous of them being Shaheed Minar and the statue of ace footballer Gostho Pal. Elliot Park, Mohor Kunja and Victoria Memorial complex are three parks which are situated in the Maidan area.

Rabindra Sarobar or "The Lake" or 'Dhakuria Lake' is an artificial lake and urban park in the spirit of Central Park, New York City. The park has a lake and an island with a footbridge, an open-air amphitheatre (Nazrul Mancha), a sports stadium (Rabindra Sarobar Stadium), a children's park and the rowing clubs of Calcutta Rowing Club, Bengal Rowing Club and Lake Club.
The Central Park is a large urban park in the centre of the Bidhan Nagar township in Kolkata Metropolitan Area, with a lake in the middle and information technology and government offices along its fringes.

Prakriti Tirtha or 'Eco Park', located in New Town in Kolkata Metropolitan Area, is situated on a 480 acres (190 ha) plot and is surrounded by a 104 acres (42 ha) waterbody with an island called Ekanto in the middle. The park has been divided into three broad parts; (1) ecological zones like wetlands, grasslands, and urban forest, (2) theme gardens and open spaces, and (3) urban recreational spaces. The Eco Park is further divided into different sub-parts according to the different types of fauna planted. Recently in the month of November 2017, it also opened up another section which displays the replica of "The seven wonders of the World". Toy trains and chair cars are available for the tourists on rent for making round around the park. There are four Gates for entry and exit purpose.

The Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden (previously known as Indian Botanical Garden) spread over 270 acres (1.1 km2), was founded in 1786 and is the oldest botanical gardens in India. It is located at the bank of Hoogly River, Shibpur, Howrah near Kolkata. Housing 50,000 species, the Botanical Survey of India and one of the world's most historically relevant herbariums, it is famous for its 250-year-old, 98-foot-tall The Great Banyan tree - which has the largest girth of any banyan tree ever recorded (1300 ft).

Alipore Zoological Gardens was founded in 1875, inaugurated by The Prince of Wales (later Edward VII). Initially started from the personal menagerie of the then Governor General of Bengal Arthur Wellesley and Carl Louis Schwendler - a German electrician, it grew based on gifts from British and Indian nobility - like Raja Suryakanta Acharya of Mymensingh in whose honour the open air tiger enclosure is named the "Mymensingh Enclosure". The zoo was ill-reputed because of cross breeding experiments between lions and tigers to produce strains like tigons, ligers, and litigons. Adwaita was a male Aldabra giant tortoise in the zoo which died in March, 2006. He was reported to have been more than 250 years old - a candidate for the longest-lived animal. The other success story of the zoo was a live birth of the rare Sumatran rhinoceros in 1889. The zoo is downsizing to meet animal comfort requirements laid down by the Central Zoo Authority of India. The zoo is also on the flyway for several migratory birds like the sarus crane.

A host of new amusement parks have sprung up in recent times - the most notable being are Nicco Park in Bidhan Nagar - the first modern amusement park in Kolkata Metropolitan Area and Aquatica in New Town - the theme water park. Other important parks include Nalban in Bidhannagar and Captain Bhery Eco & Aquatic Hub in Chingrighata.

Benubana Chhaya is a categorized water park in Kolkata located at Bishwa Bangla Sarani, Baishnabghata Patuli Township. The Nature Park of India is a reserved area administered by the government of India.

Statues and memorials
Victoria Memorial, Kolkata
The Shaheed Minar or "Tower of the Martyrs", (formerly Ochterlony Monument) was constructed on the northern fringe of the Maidan in honour of Sir David Ochterlony who commanded the British East India Company forces in the Gurkha War (1814–1816). It was renamed Shaheed Minar in honor of the fallen freedom fighters after Indian independence.

Situated at Prinsep Ghat, is a Palladian porch in the memory of the eminent Anglo-Indian scholar and antiquary James Prinsep was designed by W. Fitzgerald and constructed in 1843 .Located between the Water Gate and the St George's Gate of the Fort William, the monument to Prinsep is rich in Greek and Gothic inlays. It was restored by the state's public works department in November 2001 and has since been well-maintained. In its initial years, all royal British entourages used the Prinsep Ghat jetty for embarkation and disembarkation.

Other memorials in Kolkata include the Panioty fountain, Police Memorial and the William Jones obelisk at the South Park Street Cemetery. Lascar War Memorial located on the Napier Road in the Hastings area, is a memorial dedicated to the memory of 896 Lascars (sailor or militiaman from Indian subcontinent), who died fighting for the British Navy during the World War I. Gwalior Monument, also known as Ellenborough’s Folly is an octagonal cenotaph about 60 feet high, crowned with a bronze dome cast from guns captured from the Marathas. It was erected in 1847 by Lord Ellenborough, the Governor-General of India, as a memorial to the officers and men who fell during the Gwalior War in 1843.

Kolkata has many statues celebrating British heritage and the Indian Renaissance and freedom movement. The Maidan is a particularly good place for statue-hunting. A few of the more notable landmarks are as follows:

Sports venues
Markets and malls
New Market is Kolkata's historic shopping district. Opened in 1874, it was named Hogg Market after the commissioner Sir Stuart Hogg. The beautiful fountain and benches at the market no longer exist, but the popularity of the market has not waned, and the beautiful gothic clock tower recalls the British heritage of the market. It was renamed New Market after Independence. New Market led the way for Christmas and New Year festivities with confectionery shops like Nahoum's putting up a special spread. The market is organized on the basis of merchandise. It burnt down partially in 1985 but has been restored and expanded with a new building which houses very famous Kashmir Handicraft store-Pumposh.

The Mother Teresa Sarani, Abanindra Nath Tagore Sarani and Shakespeare Sarani are considered to be a high street of Kolkata with many commercial establishments and shopping complexes, boutiques, restaurants and stand-alone retail outlets. Gariahat and Shyambazar are two shopping districts catering mostly to the middle class and lower middle class of Kolkata. College Street is an area famous for its bookstores.

Kolkata has seen a spurt of shopping malls with the rise of the buying power of the Kolkata populace. Shopping arcades like Forum Mall and Emami Shoppers' City in Central Calcutta have brought international brands from Swarovski to Godiva to the city, breaking the city's dependence on the older market complexes like A.C. Market, Dakshinapan shopping center and Vardaan Market, which were mainly Chinese import dependent.

Most of the new malls in Kolkata are located in the newer developed areas like Bidhan Nagar, New Town and along the Bishwa Bangla Sarani. Some of the popular malls in Kolkata are City Centre (Bidhan Nagar), City Centre 2, Axis Mall and Home Town (New Town), South City Mall (the biggest mall in Eastern India) (Jadavpur), Acropolis Mall (Rajdanga in Kasba / East Kolkata Township), Metropolis Mall (Hiland Park), Mani Square Mall (Kankurgachi). Swabhumi has been modeled as an ethnic shopping arcade near the Bishwa Bangla Sarani in Phoolbagan. A new luxury shopping mall, Quest Mall has been opened in Park Circus by the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, which has brought many foreign brands such as Breitling, Burberry and Gucci for the first time to Kolkata.

Places of worship
Temples

Mosques

Churches

Gurdwaras

Other religious establishments

Bridges
Mentioned below are some of the few famous bridges in the city of Kolkata. There are more bridges. The few famous bridges are as follows:

Clubs

In Calcutta, the word "club" stills means a watering hole and not a discothèque. Calcutta has a number of clubs that hark back to the Raj days but have modernised over time without sacrificing their traditions. Most clubs have bakeries, dining facilities and accommodation at reasonable prices. They also have reciprocal arrangements with clubs in different countries. The most noted clubs are:

Other notable landmarks
Educational institutes of academic and historical interest

Streets