The Statue of Unity became the world’s tallest statue when it was unveiled in Gujarat, India, in 2018.
The monument depicts Vallabhbhai Patel, an Indian independence leader and the country’s first deputy prime minister and home minister. It stands on the Sadhu Bet river island near Kevadia, overlooking the Narmada River. The statue is 182 meters tall, a height chosen to correspond with the number of legislative assembly constituencies in Gujarat at the time.
Indian sculptor Ram V. Sutar designed the monument. Construction began in 2013, and the statue was inaugurated on 31 October 2018, Patel’s 143rd birth anniversary.
The Statue of Unity is taller than the Spring Temple Buddha in China and the Statue of Liberty in New York. Its height refers to the statue itself, not the surrounding pedestal and complex.