ગુજરાત

Gujarat

Gujarat is a state on the western coast of India, most of it lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. As a result, the state has a coastline of 1,600 km. Today’s borders of the state include most of the main central areas of the Indus Valley Civilization, including the ancient metropolitan cities Lothal, Dholavira, and Gola Dhoro.

Geologically, Gujarat provides a wide spectrum of rock types of different ages, the Aravallies in the northeast are 2.5 Billion years old, while huge areas in the central and western parts consist of very young unconsolidated alluvium and beach material. The whole state can be divided into three distinct zones. The Mainland Gujarat is a vast alluvial plain covering 83,000 km² formed by the rivers Indus, Sabarmati, Mahi, Narmada and Tapi. It also contains the Aravali mountain range which is the result of the uplift of ancient crstalline basement. It is mainly composed of quartzites, phyllites, schists, calcgneisses, and granites. Saurastra is the peninsular Gujarat and in its core it’s the result of volcanic activities, shows basaltic rocks, volcanic cones and craters, and a series of different igneous rock types formed by magmatic differentiation. Kachchh or Kutch is the north-eastern part of Gujarat and very rich in minerals like bauxite, gypsum, agate, and limestones.

The Junagadh Buddhist Cave Group are actually three separate sites of artificial caves of Buddhist and/or Jain origin. As they are located close together in the city Junagadh, they are considered to be connected.