The archaeological site at Sankisa, with an area of a circumference of over 6 km, has a long history and is associated with Hindu and Buddhist traditions. It is identified with Sankasya and referred to as the royal city and capital of Kusadhvaja, the brother of Janaka of the epic Ramayana. It is one of the eight places associated with Buddha. The Pali Buddhist texts mentions that Sankassa is the place, where Buddha accompanied with Brahma and Indra descended from the trayatrimsa heaven after preaching dhamma to his mother Mayadevi. The site is enclosed within double earthern rampart contains several archaeological mounds of varied heights. Mounds are also found outside the ramparts. An elephant capital of Mauryan pillar of Emperor Asoka is well preserved at the site. The archaeological excavations conducted at the site by ASI has further authenticated the antiquity of the site which has revealed a long continuous history of the sites from Painted Grey Ware culture (circa 9th century B.C.-6th century B.C), Northern Black Polished Ware culture (6th Cent B.C. to 3rd cent B.C.), Sunga period (c. 2nd Century B.C.- c.1st Century B.C.) and Kushan period ( 1st century B.C.- C 3rd Century A.D.).

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