Eleven kilometres from the Patna Railway station, is situated the village Kumarhar, the road to reach it lying through crowded streets breathing a medieval air. It is here that the relics of some of the monuments of Pataliputra have been discovered. Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to Chandragupta Maurya's Court, wrote an account of India in the 4th century B.C. in which he says that the royal palace excelled in splendour the palaces of the Egyptian, Babylonian and Cretan monarchs. Here polished sandstone columns have been found with decayed woodworks still clinging to some of them. The excavation site is open daily between 09:30 hrs to 17:30 hrs except on Mondays.