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sushmita balasubramani · CC BY 2.0
Landmark South Asia wonder

Thar Desert

3000 BCE – still standing

Great Indian Desert stretching across Rajasthan, the world's most densely populated desert

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Wikipedia

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Thar Desert on Wikipedia.

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Who held this ground

Borders from dated snapshots, up to a century apart; precision varies.

Reconstruction

  1. No border recorded here in this snapshot (3000 BCE)
  2. Austroasiatic rice cultures (2000 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  3. Vedic Aryans (1500 BCE–700 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  4. Hindu kingdoms (500 BCE–400 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  5. Hindu kingdoms and republics (323 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  6. Mauryan Empire (300 BCE–200 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  7. Kushan Empire (100 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  8. Saka Kingdom (1 BCE–300 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  9. Gupta Empire (400 CE–500 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  10. Hindu kingdoms (600 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  11. No border recorded here in this snapshot (700 CE)
  12. Hindu states (800 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  13. Multan (900 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  14. Rajput Kingdoms (1000 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  15. Hindu kingdoms (1100 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  16. Rajput Kingdoms (1200 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  17. Sultanate of Delhi (1279 CE–1400 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  18. Rajputana (1492 CE–1600 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  19. Mughal Empire (1650 CE–1715 CE) Border precision: Defined
  20. Mahratta states (1783 CE) Border precision: Defined
  21. Rajputs (1800 CE) Border precision: Defined
  22. Maratha Confederacy (1815 CE) Border precision: Defined
  23. British Raj (1880 CE–1938 CE) Border precision: Defined
  24. India (1945 CE–2026 CE) Border precision: Defined
Border precision
  • Defined
  • Approximate

Elsewhere in South Asia at the time

Records whose own span overlaps this one, found by the same test the canvas draws with. The bar under each card is where it sits inside this one.

See the whole view

Landmark · South Asia

Taj Mahal

1632 CE – still standing

Polity · South Asia

Tibet

Attested 1000 CE – 1960 CE

Trade route · South Asia

Harappan Maritime Trade (Indus–Mesopotamia)

2600 BCE – 1900 BCE

Conflict · South Asia

Naxalite–Maoist Insurgency

1967 CE – 2026 CE

Landmark · South Asia

Taxila

600 BCE – 500 CE

Polity · South Asia

Hindu kingdoms

Attested 500 BCE – 1715 CE

Trade route · South Asia

Grand Trunk Road

300 BCE

Conflict · South Asia

2025 India–Pakistan Conflict

2025 CE

Dated moments inside this span

Events the timeline places between 3000 BCE and 2026 CE.

3000 BCE Mount Kailash 3000 BCE Dholavira 2500 BCE Mohenjo-daro 2400 BCE Lothal 600 BCE Taxila 563 BCE Lumbini

And in the rest of the world

Records running through the same years, on the other side of the map.

Great Pyramid of Giza Landmark · Middle East 2560 BCE – still standing Ottoman Empire Polity · Europe 1299 CE – 1922 CE World War I Conflict · Europe 1914 CE – 1918 CE Nile River Trade Trade route · Middle East 3000 BCE – 30 BCE Sargon of Akkad Figure · Mesopotamia 2334 BCE – 2279 BCE Great Wall of China Landmark · East Asia 700 BCE – still standing
Image credits 6 pictures from Wikimedia Commons