Dholavira () is an archaeological site at Khadirbet in Bhachau Taluka of Kutch District, in the state of Gujarat in western India, which has taken its name from a modern-day village south of it. This village is from Radhanpur. Also known locally as Kotada timba, the site contains ruins of a city of the ancient Indus Valley civilization. Earthquakes have repeatedly affected Dholavira, including a particularly severe one around 2600 BC. Dholavira's location is on the Tropic of Cancer. It is one of the five largest Harappan sites and the most prominent of archaeological sites in India belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization. It is located on Khadir bet island in the Kutch Desert Wildlife Sanctuary in the Great Rann of Kutch. The quadrangular city lay between two seasonal streams, the Mansar in the north and Manhar in the south. The site was thought to be occupied from c.2650 BCE, declining slowly after about 2100 BCE, and to have been briefly abandoned then reoccupied until c.1450 BCE; however, recent research suggests the beginning of occupation around 3500 BCE (pre-Harappan) and continuity until around 1800 BCE (early part of Late Harappan period). The site was initially discovered by a resident of Dholavira village, Shambhudan Gadhvi, in early 1960s who made efforts to bring government attention to the location. The site was "officially" discovered in 1967-68 by J. P. Joshi, of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), and is the fifth largest of eight major Harappan sites. It has been under excavation since 1990 by the ASI, which opined that "Dholavira has indeed added new dimensions to personality of Indus Valley Civilisation." The other major Harappan sites discovered so far are Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Ganeriwala, Rakhigarhi, Kalibangan, Rupnagar and Lothal. It was named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name Dholavira: a Harappan City on 27 July 2021. Chronology of Dholavira Ravindra Singh Bisht, the director of the Dholavira excavations, has defined the following seven stages of occupation at the site: Recent C14 datings and stylistic comparisons with Amri II-B period pottery shows the first two phases should be termed Pre-Harappan Dholaviran Culture and re-dated as follows: Stage I (c. 3500-3200 BCE), and Stage II (c. 3200-2600 BCE). Excavations Excavation was initiated in 1989 by the ASI under the direction of Bisht, and there were 13 field excavations between 1990 and 2005. The excavation brought to light the urban planning and