Sindri Fort (Sindree in old literature) was a fort lying on the Nara river, an eastern arm of the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...

upstream of

Lakhpat Lakhpat is a town in Kachchh district in the Indian state of Gujarat located at the mouth of the Kori Creek. The town is enclosed by 7km-long, 18th century fort walls. Etymology The town is named after Rao Lakha who ruled in Sindh about the mi ...

in the Indian state of

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

. It lay in the low flat region of the

Rann of Kutch The Rann of Kutch is a large area of salt marshes that span the border between India and Pakistan. It is located mostly in the Kutch district of the Indian state of Gujarat, with a minor portion extending into the Sindh province of Pakistan. ...

and was partly destroyed and submerged in an earthquake on 16 June 1819. The region where it stood subsided (sank) during the earthquake. The rapid changes in the landscape of the region were used as an example of geological change by

Charles Lyell Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known today for his association with Charles ...

in his 1830 ''Principles of Geology'', at a time when the Earth was seen as having been unchanged since creation.

Destruction and aftermath

File:Sindhri 1838.jpg, Remains of Sindhri fort in 1838 File:Fort Sindree after earthquake.tiff, Fort Sindree after earthquake File:Sindhri_fort.jpg, Ruins in 1869 as seen by

Arthur Beavor Wynne Arthur Beavor Wynne (15 October 1837 – 22 December 1906) was an Anglo-Irish geologist who worked in Geological Survey of India. He worked on stratigraphy of the Himalayas, and the geology of parts of western India. He was born in Sligo, the son ...

File:Kutch geology.jpg, Geological map of the region Sindri fort was partly damaged by an earthquake in June 1819 and the land in the region subsided and was submerged by rushing waters. Some of the people who lived in the fort climbed up a tower and were saved by boats. A strip of land running for fifty miles and lying five miles from the fort rose up after the earthquake to form an embankment. This strip was noticed by the people at the fort and named as "Allah bund" or the mound/embankment of Allah or God. The Indus river changed its course gradually after the earthquake and cut through the newly created bund. Allah bund is now thought to indicate a

fault line In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

. When

Alexander Burnes Captain Sir Alexander Burnes (16 May 1805 – 2 November 1841) was a Scottish explorer, military officer and diplomat associated with the Great Game. He was nicknamed Bokhara Burnes for his role in establishing contact with and expl ...

visited the site in 1828 he found a single tower rising above the water. The catastrophic change in the landscape was used as an example of geological change by

in his landmark ''Principles of Geology'' (1832). Ignatius Donnelly used the destruction and submergence of Sindri Fort as support for the possibility of

Atlantis Atlantis () is a fictional island mentioned in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and ''Critias'' as part of an allegory on the hubris of nations. In the story, Atlantis is described as a naval empire that ruled all Western parts of the known world ...

in his 1882 book '' Atlantis: The Antediluvian World''.

References

{{reflist Forts in Gujarat Former buildings and structures in India