Historically, the state of Gujarat has been one of the main centers of the Indus Valley Civilization. It contains major ancient metropolitan cities from the Indus Valley such as Lothal, Dholavira, and Gola Dhoro. The ancient city of Lothal was where India's first port was established. Also, Dholavira, the ancient city, is one of the largest and most prominent archaeological sites in India, belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization. The most recent discovery was Gola Dhoro. All together, about 50 Indus Valley settlement ruins have been discovered in Gujarat
Gujarat's major cities include Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar. In year 2010, Forbes list of world's fastest growing cities included Ahmedabad at number 3 after Chengdu and Chongqing from China. Surat is also one of the fastest growing city in India.Vadodara being the cultural city of gujarat is fastly growing area wise and is industrialized to a large extenet.It is the number 4th city in india in growing fastly. Major resources produced by the state include cotton, groundnut, dates, sugarcane, and petrochemical products. The state is rich in calcite, gypsum, manganese, lignite, bauxite, limestone, agate, feldspar and quartz sand, and successful mining of these minerals is done in their specified areas. Gujarat produces about 98% of India's required amount of Soda Ash and gives the country about 78% of its national requirement of salt. It is one of India's most prosperous states, having a per-capita GDP significantly above India's average. Kalol, Khambhat and Ankleshwar are today known for their oil and natural gas production. Dhuvaran has a thermal power station, which uses coal, oil and gas.