Harappan Era: Breakthroughs & Enigmas (3000 BCE - 1700 BCE)

The hauntingly beautiful ruins of the Harappan city of Dholavira lie on a small crescent-shaped island called Khadir in the middle of the Greater Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. It is surrounded on all sides by salt and a salty marsh today. But it was not always like this.

Around 4,000 years ago, in its heyday, Dholavira was a vibrant port site and an emporium of the Bronze Age world, where ships from the Indus and the Persian Gulf called in with exotic fare like lapis lazuli, turquoise, copper, wood and fine cloth. All this was traded for goods made at Dholavira and its hinterland.