When Gwadar, Pakistan’s southwestern port city, first came into the limelight in the early 2000s, it was presented as a remote village of fishermen that had always been disconnected from the world outside. But, for centuries, Gwadar was, in fact, an active natural sea port, with a historic role in the transregional maritime network of the Indian Ocean.

Today much of this history remains overshadowed by Gwadar’s more contemporary geopolitical importance, especially with the construction of a deep-sea port in 2007 and the inauguration of the $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project in 2013.

Gwadar has, however, long sat on a very important strategic location, and hence, was an active cosmopolitan center, like no other town in Balochistan.

The earliest known mention of Gwadar dates back to 325 B.C., in “Indica,” one of the most detailed ancient accounts of Alexander the Great’s conquests. On Alexander’s return journey after his conquests in India, he traveled along the Gedrosia coast (present-day Makran in southwest Balochistan). The villages of Kalmat. Pishukan and Gwadar are mentioned in this account.

A number of records also confirm that historically Gwadar had likely functioned as an intermediate port where sailors would stop to rest and stock up on supplies. For example, Guador (Gwadar) finds mention in the memoir of a Turkish admiral named Sidi Ali Reis from 1554.