Lothal, Site of Indus Valley Civilization in India
On our way from Ahmedabad to Velavadar, we decided to stop at two places. First at Nal Sarovar (pronounced as Nar Sarovar) then at Lothal. Both these places would actually fall on your way and you just need to take a small detour.
Now you must be wondering why Lothal?
 |
| Walls |
Well, when I was in school, just like everyone else, I too had studied about the Indus Valley civilization and wondered how much advanced men were at that part of the world; so much advanced that they built houses with brick walls where all houses had proper sanitation, had a port, a large granary, wells... all these at around 2400 BC!
Until I started my research on Gujarat, I always had thought that the Indus valley Civilization was only in Mohenhjaro and Harappa, both of which are now in Pakistan post partition. And to my amazement, I came to know that the Indus Valley civilization is scattered all over Gujarat as well, out of which Lothal is one such settlement.
 |
| Dock |
 |
| Drainage system |
 |
| Part of brick wall |
Since there are no guides to take you around in Lothal, it is best that you first visit the archaeological museum and get an idea of the place. The archaeological museum is just next to the protected site. The museum is closed on Fridays. You can refer this link for the museum, in case you need more information http://asi.nic.in/asi_museums_lothal.asp
We roamed in and around the ruins for about an hour. We saw the upper acropolis, lower acropolis, cemetery, bead factory, a dock, warehouse and old wells. Though everything is now in ruins, you can still make out how magnificent it was when the civilization was alive.
 |
| Upper Acropolis |
 |
| Lower Acropolis |
 |
| Lower Acropolis |
Since my knowledge of history is limiting, you can have a look at the link below. It is really a good article on Lothal: http://www.harappa.com/lothal/text.html
While exiting the place, two very nice grandpa's befriended us :) They were locals and on seeing our cameras, they asked us to take their photos. They were very happy to know that tourists from far flung places came to see Lothal, which is now their home.
 |
| Grandpas |
Next we hit the highways, our destination... Velavadar.
keywords: lothal, travel, gujarat, harappa, mohenjodaro, travel
It is nice to go back in history and traverse through all that you studied in school. Good to know that there are remnants of Indus valley civilization in India. Lovely post.
ReplyDeleteoh yes, it is really a different sort of feeling to see all things that we have studied in school, with our own eyes.
ReplyDeleteThere is an adjacent museum too which has all the Harappan age beads,vessels,seals that were excavated from this site.
Apart from Lothal there are also some more sites in Gujarat where ruins of the Harappan Civilization has been found, but sadly because of time constraints we could not visit them all.
And thank you so much for stopping by,we are glad that you liked this post:)