# Sibsagar

Sibsagar or Sivasagar (Assamese: শিৱসাগৰ Śivasāgar xih-waw-xah-gawr) is a city in Upper Assam. Sibsagar is famous for its monuments of the Ahom kingdom. Now it is a multi-cultural city.

## Get in

The nearest airports are Jorhat (55 km), Dibrugarh (80 km), and Guwahati (369 km). Buses ply regularly from Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Guwahati. Sibsagar Town is the beautiful town & it also have a railway station. The Dibrugarh - Yesvantpur Express connects this station. The nearest railway station on the Tinsukia-Guwahati sector of North East Frontier Railways is Simaluguri, 16 km from Sibsagar town. Buses ply regularly from Simaluguri towards Sibsagar. Taxis are also available for hire from the railway station. It is approximately a half-hour bus ride from Simaluguri town.

## Get around

You can get on an autorickshaw as well as a pedal rickshaw. You can also take a tempo. For sightseeing you can hire a car from a local tour operator.

## See

* Rang Ghar (ৰংঘৰ Roṁghor). A two-storied building, which was the royal sports-pavilion from which the Ahom kings and nobles witnessed games like buffalo fights and other sports at the Rupahi Pathar (pathar meaning field in Assamese) specially during Rangali Bihu festival in the Ahom capital, Rangpur. On the roof of the Rang Ghar is a design of an Ahom royal long boat. The building was constructed during the reign of Swargadeo Pramatta Singha in 1746. It is north east to the Talatal Ghar a multi-storied royal complex in Joysagar west of Sivasagar town, on the other side of the Assam Trunk (AT) Road in Sibsagar district in Assam. The Rang Ghar is said to be the oldest amphitheater in Asia. The base of the monument has a series of arched entrances and atop the roof is a decorative pair of carved stone crocodiles. In many of these, only the brick framework exists with vestiges of sculptural adornments here and there. The Ahoms, who used special thin baked bricks, did not have the use of cement and, therefore, used a paste of rice and eggs as mortar for their construction.
* Talatal Ghar. Built by Rajeswara Singha (AD 1751-1769). All the rooms were connected with small passages. Talatal ghar had three storeys underground and four storeys above ground. The remains of this palace is standing tall in Sivasagar town. Though top levels of the palace having wooden works are completely destroyed. All the rooms were connected with small passages. Similarly the underground levels are closed for tourists. Bortop (guns) preserved in Talatal Ghar.
* 26.94117594.876351 Maidams (Charaideo village, 30 km east of Sibsagar). Maidams or moidams, are burial mounds from the 13th-18th centuries. Royals of the Ahom people were buried here, instead of cremated according to usual Hindu practice. In 2024 the area was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, named "India Moidams – the Mound-Burial System of the Ahom Dynasty". (updated Jul 2024)

## Eat

* Burger Point, B.G. Road (near SBI ATM).
* Brahmaputra Hotel (opposite bus stand).

## Sleep

* Hotel Piccolo, Arunodoi Path, Boarding Road, ☏ +91 98592 87203, booking@hotelpiccolo.in.
* Brahmaputra Hotel, Opposite Bus Stand.
* Raj Palace Hotel, AT Road, Station Charali.
* Prashaanti Tourist Lodge, Sivasagar, ☏ +91 772 222394. The lodge is operated by Department of Tourism and Assam Tourism Development Corporation Limited. (updated Aug 2016)

## Go next

* Jorhat
* Dibrugarh
* Kaziranga National Park
* Guwahati