Ahmedabad

Sister cities

• Jersey City
• Columbus
• Rio de Janeiro
• Valladolid
• Astrakhan

History

Based on relics found in several neighbourhoods of the old city and on writings of the Persian historian al-Biruni, it is surmised that an early Bhil tribal group settlement was known as Ashaval. According to Merutunga, Karna, the Chaulukya (Solanki) ruler of Anhilvada (modern Patan), successfully launched a military campaign against Ashaval and founded a city nearby called Karnavati. The location of Karnavati is not definitively known. References from the 14th and 15th centuries mention Ashaval but do not mention Karnavati. Ahmad Shah I of the Gujarat Sultanate transferred its capital from Anhilvada to Ashaval in 1411 CE; as was customary, the city was subsequently renamed Ahmedabad after the Sultan. The area around Ahmedabad has been inhabited since the 11th century, when it was known as Ashaval. At that time, Karna, the Chaulukya (Solanki) ruler of Anhilwara (modern Patan), waged a successful war against the Bhil king of Ashaval, and established a city called Karnavati on the banks of the Sabarmati. Solanki rule lasted until the 13th century, when Gujarat came under the control of the Vaghela dynasty of Dholka. Gujarat subsequently came under the control of the Delhi Sultanate in the 14th century. However, by the early 15th century, the local Muslim governor Zafar Khan Muzaffar established his independence from the Delhi Sultanate and crowned himself Sultan of Gujarat as Muzaffar Shah I, thereby founding the Muzaffarid dynasty. In 1411, the area came under the control of his grandson, Sultan Ahmed Shah, who selected the forested area along the banks of the Sabarmati river for his new capital. He laid the foundation of a new walled city near Karnavati and named it Ahmedabad after himself. According to other versions, he named the city after four Muslim saints in…

Geography

Ahmedabad lies in western India at 53 metres (174 feet) above sea level on the banks of the Sabarmati river, in north-central Gujarat. It covers an area of . The Sabarmati frequently dried up in the summer, leaving only a small stream of water, and the city is in a sandy and dry area. However, with the execution of the Sabarmati River Front Project and Embankment, the waters from the Narmada river have been diverted to the Sabarmati to keep the river flowing throughout the year, thereby eliminating Ahmedabad's water problems. The steady expansion of the Rann of Kutch threatened to increase desertification around the city area and much of the state; however, the Narmada Canal network is expected to alleviate this problem. Except for the small hills of Thaltej-Jodhpur Tekra, the city is almost flat. Three lakes lie within the city's limits—Kankaria, Vastrapur and Chandola. Kankaria, in the neighbourhood of Maninagar, is an artificial lake developed by the Sultan of Gujarat, Qutb-ud-din, in 1451. According to the Bureau of Indian Standards, the town falls under seismic zone 3, in a scale of 2 to 5 (in order of increasing vulnerability to earthquakes). Ahmedabad is divided by the Sabarmati into two physically distinct eastern and western regions. The eastern bank of the river houses the old city, which includes the central town of Bhadra. This part of Ahmedabad is characterised by packed bazaars, the pol system of closely clustered buildings, and numerous places of worship. A pol (pronounced as pole) is a housing cluster which comprises many families of a particular group, linked by caste, profession, or religion. This is a list of pols in the old walled city has helped Ahmedabad gain a place in UNESCO's Tentative Lists, in selection criteria II, III and IV. The…

Most-observed species

• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  15,455
• Common Myna

  Acridotheres tristis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  13,995
• Rose-ringed Parakeet

  Psittacula krameri (Scopoli, 1769) · Aves
  12,547
• Purple Sunbird

  Cinnyris asiaticus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  11,745
• Black Kite

  Milvus migrans (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  11,659
• Jungle Babbler

  Turdoides striata (Dumont, 1823) · Aves
  11,425
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  11,282
• Red-vented Bulbul

  Pycnonotus cafer (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  11,249

Most recent

• M 4.1 — 2024-11-15
  11 km SW of Chānasma, India
• M 4 — 2010-09-02
  7 km S of H?rij, India