Why it looks like this

In the 1600s Surat was the busiest port of the Mughal empire — the departure harbour for Mecca pilgrims and the place where the English and Dutch East India Companies opened their first Indian factories. Its walled riverside core and bazaars date from that golden age, before trade moved to Bombay.

The modern city found two new engines: textiles, and above all diamonds — roughly nine of every ten diamonds on Earth pass through Surat's cutting and polishing works. One of India's fastest-growing cities, it spreads in rings from the Tapi riverfront, its wealth built on the world's smallest goods.