Sanchi happens to be the best of all discoveries made by Alexander Cunningham in 1851. He then went on to establish the Archeological Survey of India. This place is extremely important to the Buddhist community it was during Cunninghams excavations that this site threw up stupas, including the famous Sanchi Stupa. Believed to hold the bones and beads of some of Buddhas closest disciples. It is believed that Emperor Ashoka had turned this place into an important Buddhist site during the 3rd century BCE, this making Sanchi the oldest Buddhist site to have ever existed. The structures here date back to the 1st century BCE.