Dholavira - A Indus Valley Civilization site in India

The Indus Valley Civilization (or IVC for short) that grew up in the valley of the Indus River about five thousand years back, is well-known. Not so well-known is the fact that almost contemporaneously, sites similar to the well-known sites of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro also grew up in parts of Western India. One such site is Dholavira near the town of Bhuj in Gujarat. It is at some distnace of about 220 kilometres to the north of Bhuj and it takes about four hours to drive up each way.

The drive is quite pleasant especially in the morning in cold weather. The remarkable thing to be seen at Dholavira is the rain-water harvesting system with channels running down from the hillock down to the terraced water reservoirs at the bottom of the hillock, as may be seen in this picture. The Local museum of artefacts recovered during the archaeological excvations at Dholavira is also inetresting.