Giridih district is one of the twenty-two districts of Jharkhand and Giridih is the administrative headquarters of this district. Giridih district was created on 6th December 1972 by carving some parts of Hazaribagh district. The literal meaning of Giridih is the land of hills & hillocks - giri, a Hindi word, means hills and dih, another word of the local dialect, indicates upland.

The district, covering an area of around 4854 sq km, is bounded on the north by Jamui district and Nawada district of Bihar state, on the east by the districts of Deoghar| and Jamtara, on the south by Dhanbad and Bokaro, and on the west by Hazaribagh and Koderma districts. The district is rich in mineral wealth, particularly in mica and coal. Gawan and Tisari blocks of the district have several mica mines, and coals are found abundantly at several places throughout the district.

Indian plant physiologist and physicist whose invention of highly sensitive instruments for the detection of minute responses by living organisms to external stimuli enabled him to anticipate the parallelism between animal and plant tissues noted by later biophysicists Jagdish Chandra Bose also glorified the soil of Giridih. His then residence is known as "Vigyan Kendra". This organisation is run by "Bihar Council of Science and Technology".

Places of Interest

Usri Fall: A famous picnic spot situated about 13 kms east of Giridih town Amidst in the range of the famous Parasnath Hills ,the Usri River gushes down from a steep gorge , some 40 feet high in three separate streams

Khandoli: water reservoir some 8 km North-East of Giridih headquater is one of the best site for water related adventure sports and bird-watching.A watch tower and 600 feet high hillock offers a panoramic view of Khandoli site.

Madhuban: The Village which lies in pirtand block has a famous temple believed to be more than 2000 years old. It is a place of considerable religious importance for the jain.The Samosharan temple and Bhomiyaji Asthan are two very famous Jain temple.There is a Jain Museum at Madhuban which houses a number of Jain scriptures,Idiols and manuscript .

Parasnath Hill: This is most sacred pilgrimage of Jains. The name of this mountain was kept in the name of last pilgrims Sri Parswanath Swami. Parasnath hill which is 4431 ft height is the highest mountain south of the Himalayas The special sanctity of Parasnath for the Jains arises from the tradition that twenty -third of the Tirthankars (religious saints who are the object of their worship),Parsva or Parsvanath , like nine of his predecessors attained nirvana on the hill. According to local tradition the number of Tirthankars who attained nirvana on the Parasnath hill is 20 and not 9 .For each of them there is a shrine( gumti for tuk) on the hill.