Lothal dockyard
Dársena de Lothal
- Date
- c. 2400 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Lothal, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
- Credited to
- Indus Valley Civilisation
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Large rectangular basin of fired brick (about 219 × 37 m) with an inlet and a spillway, connected to an ancient channel of the Sabarmati, which its excavator interpreted as the world's oldest dockyard. Alongside it were warehouses and bead workshops oriented towards maritime trade.
S. R. Rao identified it as a dockyard in the 1950s; other authors (Leshnik) regard it as a freshwater reservoir. The question remains open.
What it led to
- Indus maritime trade with Magan and Mesopotamia
- hydraulic engineering in brick with sluice gates