Lothal

Lothal, about 90 km from Ahmedabad, is the excavated site of a port town of the Indus Valley Civilization, which flourished between roughly 3300 and 1300 BCE. The settlement is more than 4,500 years old and is best known for its dockyard, a basin measuring 214 by 36 metres with a lock system to control water, linked to the Gulf of Khambhat for seagoing trade.

The remains also include a fortified citadel where the elite lived in houses on raised platforms with paved courtyards, baths and drains, a large warehouse, a bead-making workshop and a lower town of artisans and traders. Beads of amethyst, onyx and other semiprecious stones found here point to commerce with West Asia. A burial ground lies at the edge of the site.