“Discovering Rann: Festivals, heritage and cultural treasures”, First Post, January 25, 2026
“There is no better time of the year to visit Gujarat’s Rann of Kutch than the winter. The Rann Utsav is on till the first week of March. The tent city at Dhordo offers a brilliant microcosm of Kutchi culture, ranging from performing arts to cuisine, and its immediate vicinity provides great vistas for photography enthusiasts. However, visitors to the Utsav would be well-advised to grab this opportunity and explore a wider part of the Rann, especially its heritage sites.
Dholavira (87 km east of Dhordo): This incredible Harappan site is the most prominent of numerous sites of that civilisation that exist in the Rann as well as one of the largest cities of that great period in our early history. With excavated remains spread over a vast area, the city is a great example of town planning and architecture.
Importantly, in a region which has historically received sparse rainfall, Dholavira’s water management system, seen in the form of large tanks and cisterns, is perhaps worth emulating by our town planners even today. The site has revealed as many as seven stages of cultural evolution, with the earliest going back to nearly 3000 BCE. In 2021, Dholavira achieved Unesco World Heritage status, putting it firmly on the global history buff’s radar……”
Read full article at firstpost.com
