Charaideo

Charaideo or Che-Rai-Doi (Literally: the shining city on the hills in Ahom language) is a historic town situated in Charaideo district, Assam, India. As per conventional chronology, Charaideo was established by the first Ahom kingSukaphaa in the year 1253 CE as the first capital of the Ahom kingdom. Even though the capital was shifted to different cities over the course of Ahom rule, Charaideo remained the symbolic centre of Ahom power in Assam. It is now famous for its vast collection of maidams (tumuli) which are the burial mounds of the ruling Ahom kings and members of the Ahom royalty. It is located about 30 km from Sivasagar town in Charaideo district. It is now famous for its extensive royal necropolis of maidams, the burial mounds of Ahom kings, queens and other members of the royalty. The necropolis also preserves a transition in Ahom funerary architecture: the burial vaults of the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries were predominantly constructed of wood, while stone and burnt-brick construction came into use from around the beginning of the eighteenth century.