Harrappa

• Some several thousand years ago there once thrived a civilization in the Indus Valley. Located in what's now Pakistan and western India, the first known urban culture of the Indian subcontinent. • The Indus Valley Civilization, as it is called, covered an area the size of western Europe. It was the largest of the four ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China. Very little is known about htem because the Indus script has not yet been deciphered. Without a "Rosetta Stone" linguists and archaeologists have been unable to decipher it.

• The main objective of the Harappans was to keep everything organized and well planned. Hygiene was one of their basic principles. Dustbins were provided at every corner for the sake of cleanliness. Roads were wide and intersected at perfect right angles. Even streetlights were provided.

•Harappa and Mohen-jo-daro were the centre of all activities. •Main roads ran from north to south and smaller ones ran crossing them- east to west. •The roads were laid out in a perfect grid with 90degrees intersections. •The planning clearly showed their understanding for traffic because they were wide enough for 2 carts to pass and also had rounded corners for turnings. •The streets divided the city into 12 equal blocks. •Streets were not paved but were instead clear dry mudded. •Roads even connected the cities to each other, but in due course of time the unused ones were washed or wiped away.

• THE CITADEL: • The citadel was the main part of the city built on a raised platform. It consisted of public buildings, a bath, granaries and quarters for providing shelter to the persons propagating religion. The planning of the city brings to light the existence of an active and efficient bureaucracy to administer the activities of the city.

•Except for the west-central blocks, the basic unit of city planning was the individual house. The common peoples quarters were

spread around the citadel. • Houses were built on both sides of the street. They had flat roofs, thick walls, windows were few. • Every house had a kitchen with a fireplace and large jars for storing grains or keeping other articles of use. •each house had bathrooms with a system of covered drains connected to the main drain of the street. •Each house, surprisingly, also had a well and a courtyard, clearly showing the urban planning.

•Bricks of fixed sizes were used for building while stone and wood were also used. Buildings in the lower area were rather monotonous and plain, being mainly functional. •The average house in these ancient cities appeared to have stood at least two storeys high . •The houses were built on bases rising above the street level with flights of steps made in the wall at the front door. •The doors of the houses usually opened on to the side lanes rather than on to the main streets. •Special roads- like driveways of today- connected the house entrances to the main doors. •

Though the harappans might not have fought any wars, they still had very fortified defences. A huge wall ran around all the cities. There were protruding positions in the walls, possibly for guards and watchmen.

•Perhaps the most well-known structure from Mohenjo-daro is the 'Great Bath'. •It is a large sunken structure which was a great discovery at that time and still fascinates archaeologists today. •It is a very important structure both in terms of its size and construction. The Bath is 12 metres long , 7 metres wide and reaches a depth of 2.4 metres in some places. •The structure is made out of baked bricks lined with a special chemical indicating that it was meant to hold water. • How the Great Bath was actually used remains a mystery. It has been suggested that it was a place for ritual bathing, or religious ceremonies.