The Talatal Ghar is an 18th century palace and military base located in Rangpur, 4 kilometres from present-day Sivasagar, Assam. It is the largest of the monument built during the Ahom era.
Ahom King Rudra Singha was responsible for the construction of Kareng Ghar, but the present structure was built by king Rajeswar Singha.
King Rudra Singha brought a special architect, Ghanshyam, from Koch Bihar, to build the structure. He was appointed as chief architect and headed the project.
It was initialy used as a military base by the Ahoms. It houses two secret tunnels, and three floors below ground level which were used as exit routes during the Ahom conflicts with other kingdoms or enemy attack.
Currently, this is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and its ground and first floor are open for public viewing. While majority of the 2nd and 3rd floors are in ruins, the tourists can also scour through them.
Talatal Ghar has an amazing network of tunnels that can seem to be a complicated maze to a lot of people. And these tunnels had purpose.
It had two secret tunnels as well as three underground floors. These were built for easy and discreet exits by kings during attacks by invaders or in case of calamity.
The three floors underneath ran east to west of a long corridor that comprised of stables, store rooms, ammunition storage, servants’ quarters and so on. The underground floors are also said to have prisons, but till date they haven’t been excavated.