This city's main feature is the water body from which it gets its name. This is a 257-acre (1.04 km2) tank also called Borpukhuri, at a higher elevation than the rest of the town, with three temples("Dol"s in Assamese) on its banks.
One hundred and fifty km east of the famous Kaziranga National Park, in the state of Assam, lies the town of Sibsagar where a mighty dynasty of rulers known as the Ahoms (Tai) reigned supreme as an invincible power for 600 years, until the British annexed the region in 1826. Here, rising on the periphery of a large 129-acre artificial tank called the Sibsagar Lake (which had given the town its name), are the archaeological remains, palaces, and temples of the Ahoms, now being preserved as national protected monuments.
Assam, in fact, derives its name from the Ahom dynasty which held such undisputed sway in the east that even the Mughal rulers, who had extended their dominance over most of the northern parts of the subcontinent, could not make inroads into Ahom territory in spite of 17 attempts at invasion (one of which was made by Emperor Aurangzeb, in the mid-17th century).