Nalanda

Nalanda was a Buddhist monastery and center of learning in the ancient Magadha region of India, its ruins in Bihar about 90 kilometers southeast of Patna and 16 kilometers north of Rajgir, and is often called the world's first residential university. Founded around 427 AD by the Gupta emperor Kumaragupta I, it grew over nearly a thousand years into a major hub of Buddhist scholarship before its destruction around 1200 AD, likely in raids led by Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji, after which the site was abandoned and largely forgotten until British surveyors rediscovered it in the 19th century. The excavated remains, covering about 12 hectares, reveal an organized monastic complex of eleven monasteries and six brick temples, along with sculptures, coins, seals, and inscriptions recovered during excavation.