India's first UNESCO city — Gandhi, Gujarati thali, and stepwell architecture
Ahmedabad is Gujarat's largest city and India's first UNESCO World Heritage City — its medieval pols (neighbourhood clusters of carved wooden houses), Jain temples, and ornate stepwells (baolis) contain some of the finest vernacular architecture in Asia. The Gujarati thali — a bottomless meal of rotis, dal, sabzi, and sweet, endlessly refilled, with neither meat nor alcohol — is one of the world's great vegetarian feasts.
Ahmedabad was founded by Sultan Ahmed Shah I in 1411 and was the capital of the Gujarat Sultanate until Mughal conquest in 1573. It became the wealthiest textile city in India under Mughal rule — 'the Manchester of India' — and was the base of Mahatma Gandhi's independence campaign: his Sabarmati Ashram on the Sabarmati River was the starting point of the 1930 Salt March (Dandi March), one of the most consequential acts of civil disobedience in history.