Context: Union Minister of ports, shipping and waterways reviewed the construction of the National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC) site at Lothal.

National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC)

• Bodies involved: It is being developed under the Sagarmala Scheme by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) in collaboration with Government of Gujarat.

• Background: The project was launched in 2022, and is being developed at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore.

• Objective: The NMHC is being developed with the aim of displaying India’s diverse maritime history and also help Lothal emerge as a world-class international tourist destination.

• It will house four theme parks – Memorial theme park, Maritime and Navy theme park, Climate theme park, and Adventure and Amusement theme park.

• It will also house the world’s tallest lighthouse museum, 14 galleries highlighting India’s maritime heritage starting from the Harappan time till today, as well as a coastal states pavilion displaying the diverse maritime heritage of Indian states and UTs.

Lothal

• Location: It is situated near the village of Saragwala in the Dholka Taluka of Ahmedabad district (Gujarat). The nearest cities are Dholka and Bagodara.

• Name: The meaning of Lothal (a combination of Loth and (s) thal) in Gujarati is “the mound of the dead”. Incidentally, the name of the city of Mohenjo-daro (also part of the Indus Valley Civilisation, now in Pakistan) means the same in Sindhi.

Lothal as Indus Valley Site

• Lothal was one of the southernmost sites of the Indus Valley civilization, located in the Bhal region of what is now the state of Gujarat.

• Timeline: The port city is believed to have been built in 2,200 BC. Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) discovered Lothal in 1954.

• Features: In later excavations, ASI unearthed a mound, a township, a marketplace, and the dock at Lothal.

• Trade: Lothal was a thriving trade centre in ancient times, with its trade of beads, gems and ornaments reaching West Asia and Africa.

World's oldest Dockyard

• According to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Lothal had the world’s earliest known dock, connecting the city to an ancient course of the Sabarmati river.

• A metropolis with an upper and a lower town had in on its northern side a basin with vertical wall, inlet and outlet channels which has been identified as a tidal dockyard.

• Additionally, the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa discovered marine microfossils and salt, gypsum crystals at the site, indicating that sea water once filled the structure and it was definitely a dockyard.

• Satellite images show that the river channel, now dried, would have brought in considerable volume of water during high tide, which would have filled the basin and facilitated sailing of boats upstream.

• The remains of stone anchors, marine shells, sealings which trace its source in the Persian Gulf, together with the structure identified as a warehouse further aid the comprehension of the functioning of the port.”

Heritage Value

• Lothal was nominated in April 2014 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its application is pending on the tentative list of UNESCO.

• Its heritage value is comparable to other ancient port-towns around the world – including Xel Ha (Peru), Ostia (Port of Rome) and Carthage (Port of Tunis) in Italy, Hepu in China, Canopus in Egypt, Gabel (Byblos of the Phoenicians), Jaffa in Israel, Ur in Mesopotamia, Hoi An in Vietnam.

• In the region, it can be compared with other Indus port towns of Balakot (Pakistan), Khirasa (in Gujarat’s Kutch) and Kuntasi (in Rajkot).