ASI has not undertaken preservation work on the site for four years. The result is there to see.

The salt water in the dock, where ships from Persia used to anchor thousands of years ago, has eaten into the brickwork leaving large cavities. The boundary walls of the dock are falling; mud is washed into the dock during monsoon.

A little away from the dock is the ancient granary of the city: its once plastered walls stand with bricks exposed, and mud has collected inside it.

The scene at the acropolis, built at a higher spot, and said to have been occupied by the ruling class, is no better. Very soon it will crumble to the level of the buildings occupied by plebians.

The remains of the bathrooms, drains, and kitchen of the ancient city are close to losing all sign of what they once were.

The lower town, which was inhabited by ordinary people, is getting discriminatory treatment even now. The walls of the structure are about to fall as the plinth has caved in. Adjacent to it lies the bead-makers' kiln, where two huge pots, one red and the other black, lie partly exposed. Not realising its importance, visitors walk through the kiln, breaking some of the artifacts lying inside.

Although three guards have been employed at the site, there is no one to keep watch at night. In the absence of any fencing, visitors trample upon and the structures. Some even walk away with mementos of their visit: pot shards, bricks, coloured stones, shell ornaments. Doing this by night is much easier -- there are no guards on duty.

The terracotta figurines, images, pottery, weights, and pictographic seals -- which have been put inside a museum -- are no better taken care of. Visitors are rare, and the watchmen simply sit inside, smoking beedis.

``Occasionally, a goat or buffalo walks inside and chews up pages from the diary meant for visitors,'' one of them said, laughing.

D.R. Gehlot, superintending archaeologist, ASI, Gujarat Circle, said: ``The paperwork for restoring excavated structures is on. Actual work will begin in two months.''

Ghelot said the work would involve underpinning sunken walls, waterproofing parts of the dock and other structures, and pointing and strengthening the brickwork.

Asked why it took four years to decide, he said, ``We have to maintain other monuments, too. We take up [such work] priority-wise.''

Considering that Lothal is one of only three Indian sites of the Indus Valley civilisation, the sub-continent's oldest, age doesn't seem the criterion by which ASI sets its priorities for site preservation.