Amreli - Geography

Geography

Most part of the commercial area is called Tower Road stretching from Tower to the Main Bus stand and further to Gopi Cinema.

Amreli is a small city in Kāthiāwār in Gujarāt. The Kāthiāwār, peninsula of western India, is in Gujarāt State. The peninsula extends southwest into the Arabian Sea and is bounded on the northwest by the Gulf of Kachchh and on the southeast by the Gulf of Khambhāt. Area, about 60,000 km² (about 23,000 sq mi).

The peninsula of Kathiawar is named after the Kathis who came to Saurashtra at the close of the fourteenth century. Their origin is not fully known but it is possible that they were driven southwards by the Muslim invaders. Khachar and Chotila were the most important seats of the Kathis. Worshippers of the Sun, they were essentially nomadic and had developed, among other pastoral occupations, the art of horse-breeding. Successive waves of immigrants from other parts of India have led to a superimposition of different communities and cultures in Kathiawar. The powerful royal families, which conquered Saurashtra later on established their rule over there.

Baroda was a former Indian state in western India, 8,176 square miles (21,180 km2); it had four divisions, three in Gujarat (Kadim, Baroda, and Navsari) and one in the Peninsula of Kathiawar (Amreli, with Okhamandal). Once a part of the Mughal Empire; in 18th century its princes belonged to Maratha Confederacy; c. 1721 it secured part of Gujarat; in 19th century subject to British administrative control until 1881; became part of Bombay state 1948 and of Gujarat state 1960.

Before 1948, there were some 260 Princely states in the Kāthiāwār Peninsula of western India. These were consolidated in a single state named Saurashtra, in which the former rulers would alternate as the constitutional head. Eventually, as expected, Saurashtra became a part of the state of Gujarāt.