Surat is second largest city in the state of Gujarat, India and the administrative headquarters of Surat District with a population of approximately 6.5 million.

The Surat Metropolitan Region is the 5th largest in India and 41st largest in World

A fire and flood in 1837 destroyed many of buildings of Surat.

Monuments that survived destruction are the tombs of English and Dutch merchants and their families, dating to the 17th century, including those of the Oxenden brothers.

Surat gains a mention in the Sanskrit epic, the Mahābhārata when Lord Krishna stopped there en route from Mathura to Dwarka.

According to other later Sanskrit records, the area was ruled by the Western Chālukyas in 610 CE, and continued to be ruled by Hindu kings until one of Quṭbuddīn Aibak's generals captured it.

The Parsis began to settle in the 12th century, and added greatly to its prosperity. Local traditions state that the city was founded in the last years of the fifteenth century by a Brahman called Gopi, who called it Suryapūr, or 'City of the Sun'.

 In 1512 and 1530 it was burned by the Portuguese

By 1520 the city was known as Surat.

In 1608, ships from the British East India Company started docking in Surat, using it as a trade and transit point.

In 1613, the British Captain Best, followed by Captain Downton, overcame Portuguese naval supremacy and obtained an imperial firman establishing a British factory at Surat following the Battle of Swally.

The Dutch also founded a factory.

The prosperity of Surat received a fatal blow when Bombay was ceded to the British as part of the dowry for Catherine of Braganza's wedding to Charles II in 1662. Shortly afterwards, in 1668, the British East India company established a factory in Bombay (Mumbai) and Surat began its relative decline concurrent with the rise of British interests in Bombay.

A fire and a flood in 1837 destroyed many of buildings of Surat.

2009 Surat gets its own dot mobi website