The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c25.166

v1.c25.166

Alexander returned to Pattala, to find Pithon arrived there, his task accomplished; and Hephaestion now set about the construction of quays and docks against the city's future greatness. The king explored the eastern branch of the river which ran out probably near the modern Lakhpat³. Everywhere his quick eye seized the points subservient to the realisation of that image which fired his imagination—the Indus a great highway of the world's traffic with a chain of flourishing semi-Greek mercantile cities. On the shores of a lake through which he passed (the Rann of Cutch?) he designed more quays and docks; on the coast, he mapped out places for wells¹. Then he again returned to Pattala and sent bodies of men down the river to begin the work.