The Terai region constitutes the northern boundary of the Indo Gangetic plains. The Great Indian Desert in Rajasthan forms the southern boundary of the plains. It continues in the east along the base of the hills of Central Highlands to the Bay of Bengal. The northern part of the Central Highlands consists of Aravalli Range of eastern Rajasthan and the southern part of the Central Highlands consists of the Aravalli Plateau, which merges with the Vindhya ranges. The rivers traversing the region are the Beas, the Chambal, the Chenab, the Gomti, the Indus, the Ravi, the Sutlej and the Yamuna, because of these rivers the soil here is rich in silt. This makes it one of the most fertile regions in the world suitable for agriculture. The crops cultivated here are rice, wheat, maize, sugarcane and cotton. The southwest monsoon is the main source of rainfall along with the rivers, which provide water for major irrigation works. This region is also historically very significant because it is here that several Indian kingdoms had their territory. They were the Gupta Empire, Kanauj Empire, Magadha Empire the Maurya Empire, the Mughal Empire and the Sultanate of Delhi. At present the cities part of this region are Ahmedabad, Delhi, Dhaka, Faisalabad, Hyderabad (Pakistan), Kanpur, Karachi, Kolkata, Lahore, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Multan, Patna, Rawalpindi-Islamabad, and Surat |