Palibothra was the famed capital of the powerful kingdom of the Prasii about which many ancient writers have left their accounts. Megasthenes

Megasthenes

Megasthenes was a Greek ethnographer in the Hellenistic period, author of the work Indica.He was born in Asia Minor and became an ambassador of Seleucus I of Syria possibly to Chandragupta Maurya in Pataliputra, India. However the exact date of his embassy is uncertain...

 (350-290 BCE), in his book Indika wrote that the city of Palibothra was situated on the confluence of the rivers Ganges and Erannoboas (Hiranyabahu), identified by Sir William Jones

William Jones (philologist)

Sir William Jones was an English philologist and scholar of ancient India, particularly known for his proposition of the existence of a relationship among Indo-European languages...

 with the Son River

Son River

Son River of central India is the largest of the Ganges' southern tributaries. A British 1850s diary shows that the river was written in English as Soane.-Course:...

, and was 9 miles long and 1.75 miles wide.

Palibothra is usually identified with Pataliputra in modern day Patna

Patna

Paṭnā , is the capital of the Indian state of Bihar and the second largest city in Eastern India . Patna is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world...

(24° 19’N, 80° 04’E), and although parts of the city have been excavated, it is thought that much of it is still buried beneath modern Patna.