Boats and ships dock at the port with men scurrying to and fro wearing the finest linen in the land. The merchants stamp ox and unicorn seals as the shipment comes in and goes out to far off lands of Mesopotamia and Egypt. The bullocks take the shipment of grain to the granary where men unload them and officials inspect them. There are women who take the account of the grains as they come in.

In a street nearby children play with their toy bullock carts made of clay which have wheels. There are a row of houses on a hillock where the top administrators or the rich live. Down the block there is the bustling market befitting the great port city. Take a left and you can reach the glass furnaces where the glass beads sought after in the far off countries are made. There are works of metal that are held valuable and designs much ahead of the time.

An able city administration can be seen at work by any person who reaches this great city, each house has an advanced drainage system. The houses are made of clay bricks and the streets and roads are made with great forethought. The people of the city speak and write a heirloglyphic language which will be lost in years to come. There are dances which are held in the main center of the city. A happy and prosperous city where people come to fulfill their dreams from far away.

This is Lothal 2500 BCE as I imagined sitting in my fifth grade classroom and peering at the artist rendition in the text book. And I fell in love with this great city near the sea and decided I would one day see it.So years later, travelling from Ahmedabad to Rajkot for a business trip, I see a sign saying Lothal turn left and I turned left.
The arid land mound with no river or sea in sight tantalized my imagination and I am in awe of nature and its work. This lost sea faring civilization awaits its rosetta stone when we will be able to decipher this Indus Valley city whose name we have forgotten. Lothal – An artists redition