It was perhaps a poignant irony of fate that a place which once cradled one of the oldest and most sophisticated civilisations is today far from civilisation. So far that, apart from the chartered tourism buses or the taxis that you succeed in hiring only after much wrangling and enticing there is no mode of transportation to Dholavira. But as they say, history repeats itself.

Dholavira, perched in the middle of the Khadir island, along the Rann of Kutch, is again the cynosure of all eyes -- western and Indian -- especially after the excavation of the oldest and largest reservoir with archaeologists expecting to unearth at least 60 metres more. So, apart from reports of Bill Clinton including the civilisational site in his Indian itinerary, there is the National Geographic team camped out there and a host of TV channels either in or trying to get in. Ministers, bureaucrats, businessmen have suddenly woken up with a jolt to the reality that is Dholavira.

The site has also proven wrong some age-old and widely held archaeological `truths'. For instance, Dholavira -- meaning white well -- has proven that the Indus culture (Harappan, as archaeologists prefer to call it these days) was not totally a riverine civilisation, as it is in the middle of a Rann.

So both academically and archaeologically, the site today is the most important of all Harappan sites, including the three in Pakistan -- Mohenjodaro, Harappa and Gandhariwala -- and Rakhigari in India.

It is also the most sophisticated and scientifically built site; unlike other sites, 80 per cent of what has been excavated has been found intact.

Archaeologists can't stop talking about the site. R S Bisht, director (Explorations & Excavations), ASI says: ``Even after 5,000 years the 32 steps that lead to the reservoir still retain their geometrical balance.

This Indus capital-city site shows how man first came, settled and then abandoned the site for more comfortable ones. It was only after 1,500 years of habitation that the people started moving north towards sites near Ganga and Yamuna, at about the time when the Mahabharata was being fought out.'' Another unique feature of the site is the ``tremendous sense of town planning.''

As Sanjay Singh, archaeologist and site supervisor, says: ``The concepts that were later detailed in the Rg Veda and the Puranas are all there. For instance, there is the param vesthinah, madhyam vesthinah and awam vesthinah. The upper, middle and lower towns. The stadium or the Rangbhumi too has been executed according to Pauranic patterns.''

Seven years of exploration -- officially the site was first excavated in 1969-70 by J.P. Joshi, who was looking for a trade route from Pakistan-Sindh to Lothal -- have thrown up more than 22,000 artefacts, seals of terracota and steatite, stone pillar members with a plating of chocolate and yellow that line the east and north gate.

``We have also recovered 37 micro beads of gold which cannot be picked up by bare fingers. Look at the size of the beads and you wonder what kind of hammer they used to round them off so perfectly and then what kind of a boring instrument they must have used to drive a hole within,'' says Bisht. Bisht says that Dholavira has added an enormous amount of information towards understanding the Harappan culture.

``This site is special in more ways than one,'' he said. ``The city planning, aesthetic architecture, hydraulic engineering and concern for water conservation, along with the funerary architecture are just amazing. Also, this city has given an authentic account of the rise and fall of the Harappan civilisation. Of how the grand urban culture became increasingly rural towards the end.''

The site also boasts of a multi-purpose stadium, the oldest and biggest in the world, with three sides for spectators and a path for ceremonial procession. There is a smaller stadium beside it.

``We have conclusive evidence to prove that they were also used as haat bazaars with national and international business transactions taking place,'' adds Bisht.

Archaeologists have also for the first time found an outer city wall along with the first ever evidence of damming the channels (Mansar and Manhar) for water harnessing. Interestingly, at all the dam sites archaeologists have found clusters of houses, probably for the staff to look after the dams!

``They knew the value of measuring distance according to laws of horizontality and verticality,'' says Bisht before signing off: ``Even if the government today, after 5,000 years, makes the kind of arrangement that the Harappan people made then there will be no scarcity of water in the region.''