Chandigarh, derives its name from the temple Chandi Mandir located in the vicinity of the site selected for the city. The deity 'Chandi', the goddess of power and a fort or 'garh' lying beyond the temple gave the City its name. Chandigarh is a modern city with a pre-historic past. The gently sloping plain on which Chandigarh exists, was in the aeons past when the Himalayas were young, a wide lake ringed by a marsh. The fossil remains found at the site testify to a large variety of aquatic and amphibian life which that environment supported. Some 8000 years ago Chandigarh was home to the Harappans. Their potsherds, stone implements, ornaments and copper arrow-heads unearthed during the excavation in 1950s and 1960s testify this. Area near the Church of Sector 18, Sunbeam Hotel, Sector 22 , Indira Holiday Home, Sector 24, CII Complex, Sector 31 etc. were some of the sites from where a lot of relics of Harappans Civilization were found and excavated.
