Lothal
A brick basin on the Gujarat coast may be the oldest dock in the world.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 500 years
- Known to
- ± 100 years
- Era
- Bronze Age, Holocene
Lothal, an Indus port town, contains a large trapezoidal brick basin with an inlet channel and what appears to be a sluice, generally interpreted as a tidal dock for berthing boats — though some argue it is an irrigation reservoir. The site also has a bead factory and Persian Gulf seals, confirming maritime trade with Mesopotamia, where texts mention a distant land called Meluhha that is almost certainly the Indus.