Sivasagar or Sibsagar is an administrative district of Assam with headquarters at Sibsagar town. The district shares common boundaries with Dibrugarh District on the east, Jorhat district on the west, river Brahmaputra on the North and Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh states on the south. It is about 360 kilometres (224 mi) north east of Guwahati. It is the district headquarters of the Sivasagar district. Sivasagar is a heritage place in Assam famous for the monuments of Ahom kingdom. Now it is a multi-cultural city. Sibsagar, ex Rangpur, was once the capital of the Ahom rulers who dominated Assam for more than 600 years. They ruled Assam virtually uninterrupted for 6 centuries until their kingdom fell to the Burmese in 1819, and their ruling class was all but wiped out. The province was liberated by the British in 1825 but, owing to the state of anarchy which prevailed in the province, it was completely annexed in 1826.

This city's main feature is the water body from which it gets its name. This is a 257-acre (1.04 km2) tank(pukhuri) also called Borpukhuri which is one of the largest tank in world, at a higher elevation than the rest of the town, with three temples(Dol's in Assamese) on its banks namely Devi dol,Shiv dol and Bhisnu dil. Of these temples, the most prominent is the Sivadol, standing tall at 104 feet (32 m), drawing large crowds on Shiv Ratri during the month of February-March. This Shiv dol is one of the tallest shiv dol in world. The Shiva Dol is a huge temple with the main temple or the sanctum sanctorum (called GARVA GRIHA) rising to an imposing height of 180 feet. It is the tallest of all Shiva temples in India. The other temples are the Vishnudol and Devidol. The temples were built by Queen Ambika, wife of Swargadeo Siba Singha, in the year 1734.

Attraction

1. Ranghar : It is a double-storied, oval shaped amphitheatre with a roof which is shaped like an inverted boat is the oldest pavilloin in Asia is situated in Joysagar near about 3 km from main city. This was built by Ahom king Pramatta Singha (AD 1744-1750) for watching various games by families of royals. These included many of Assam's indegenous games like birds fight, buffalo fight, etc.

2. Kareng Ghar : It was a Royal House of the Tai-Ahom kings, which is situated in Gargaon, the third capital of the Tai-Ahoms which is just near about 15 km from main city. It was bulit in 1752 AD by Ahom King Rajeswar Singha. It was the capital of ahom kingdom. The city of Gargaon is surrounded with several ramparts such as Nimanagarah, Bahgarh, etc. Gargaon is known to the Tai-Ahoms as -'Che-hung' means a city surrounded with ramparts. According to Tai-Ahom Buranjis (histories), king Siuklengmung as per advice of his principal queen Chaoching (a princess from Nora kingdom) made this city after Cheregua, the second capital of the Tai-Ahoms.

3. Talatal Ghar : Talatal Ghar or the Kareng Ghar (meaning the royal palace in Assamese) is located in Rangpur, one of the erstwhile capitals of the Ahom kingdom. This capital was first established by the Swargadeo Rudra Singha in 1707. It is located in the western part of the Sibsagar town. The multi-storied palace, Talatal Ghar, was built by Swargadeo Rajeswar Singha. It is just 5 minitues walkable distance from Ranghar

Rajeswar Singha added three underground stories known as Talatal Ghar made of brick and an indigenous type of cement to the four storied Kareng Ghar (or palace) built by Rudra Singha and his other sons. The Talatal Ghar had two secret underground tunnels connected to the Dikhow river and the Garhgaon Palace for use as an escape route in case of any enemy attack.

Visitors nowadays can only view the ground floor and first floor and some of remaining portion of the 2nd and 3rd floor of the palace. The underground stories have been sealed and many of the wooden structure of the palace has vanished with time. The palace was surrounded by a brick fortification and also by an earthen fort (Garh) with dikes fill.