Lothal is located near the village Saragwala in the Dholka taluk of Ahmedabad district and between the Sabarmati and its tributary, the Bhogavo, though neither of them presently flows past Lothal. There is evidence to suggest that in the past a river was flowing close to the western fringe of the settlement and it joined the Bhogavo after some distance. The Bhogavo then joined the Sabarmati which falls in the Gulf of Cambay, an inlet of the Arabian Sea, this linking Lothal ultimately to the Arabian Sea. It has been noticed that till as late as 1850, boats could sail up to the mound and that in 1942 timber was shipped from Broach to saragwala via the mound. A silted creek connecting modern Bholad with Lothal and Saragwala represents the ancient flow channel of the river or creek.
Recent palaeogeographical and remote – sensing studies confirm that Lothal was situated upon a mound that was a salt marsh inundated by tide, and that there was meandering river adjacent to the settlement which seems to be the riverbed of the tributary of the Bhogavo.
