Jabalpur

Jabalpur (IPA: [d͡ʒəbəlpʊɾ]), formerly Jubbulpore, is a city situated on the banks of the Narmada River in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the 3rd-largest urban agglomeration of the state and the 38th-largest of the country. Jabalpur is the administrative headquarters of the Jabalpur district and the Jabalpur division. It is the judicial capital of Madhya Pradesh with Madhya Pradesh High Court being located in the city.

It is generally accepted that the game of snooker originated in Jabalpur. Jabalpur is also the railway headquarters of the West Central Railway. Jabalpur Cantonment is one of the largest cantonments in India and houses the army headquarters of five states (Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand). The city is renowned for the Marble Rocks at Bhedaghat, an 8 km gorge sculpted entirely from pure marble by the ferocious Narmada River, as it descends from the Dhuandhar Falls boasting a rare status of being one of only three such gorges in the world, alongside Taroko Gorge in Taiwan and Trigrad Gorge in Bulgaria.

Jabalpur holds the distinction of being the first dinosaur fossil discovery site in Asia in 1828 near Bara Simla Hill by British officer William Henry Sleeman, with later finds in the region including dinosaur eggshells and fossils from species like Titanosaurus and Rajasaurus.