Great Rann of Kutch

"The U.S. archaeologist Louis Flam summed up those studies thus: ‘Terrestrial Kachchh would have consisted of an island, or islands, completely surrounded by a tidal and seasonal sea.’"

"In addition to the Sindhu Nadi, the Nara Nadi has been recognized as an exclusive perennial river that flowed in the northeastern, east-central, and southeastern portions of the Lower Indus Basin in the fourth and third millennia BCE. Available evidence suggests that during the fourth and third millennia, the delta of the combined Sindhu Nadi and Nara Nadi was located near the Rann of Kachchh on the eastern side of the Lower Indus Basin to somewhere between Hyderabad and Thatta in Sindh."

"The Rann was, according to U.B. Mathur, a ‘shallow arm of the sea’."

"More recent work by Gaur et al. suggests that it was ‘an extended Gulf and must have been navigable at least up to the early centuries of the Christian era, [while] the Little Rann of Kachchh was navigable even as late as 16th century AD.’"

"It is, I believe, a space without a counterpart on the globe ; differing as widely from what is termed the sandy desert as it differs from the cultivated plain; neither does it resemble the steppes of Russia, but may justly be considered of a nature peculiar to itself. No where is that singular phenomenon the mirage or sirab of the desert, or, as the natives most aptly term it, dulchan (smoke or vapour), seen to greater advantage than on the Runn. The smallest shrubs on it have at a distance the appearance of a forest ; and, on a nearer approach, assume sometimes that of ships in full sail, at others that of breakers on a rock. In one instance, I observed a cluster of bushes, which looked like a pier with tall-masted vessels lying close up to it, and on approaching, not a bank was near the shrubs to account for the deception. From it, too, the hills of Cutch seem more lofty, and to have merged into the clouds, their bases being obscured by vapour. The wild ass, or khar gada, is the only inhabitant of this desolate region."

"R.S. Bisht writes, 'Traditions has it that it was once an extension of the Arabian Sea and was utilised for maritime trade through its various ports perched along both its banks---the southern and northern. The ships of the renowned merchant Jagdu Sha, carrying gold and miscellaneous provisions, are said to be sailing from port to port in the Rann'."