Search our site

Ancient Indus City Drains

September 19th, 2016

homeblog

slideshowsessays

articlesbooksvideos

resourcesabout us

Username *

Password *

Create new

account

Request new

password

Log in

Ancient Indus City Drains https://www.harappa.com/blog/ancient-indus-city-drains

1 of 3 9/29/16, 12:10 AM

Few things better represent the power of ancient Indus cities in their time- much like subways and digital switches do modern cities - than brickdrains. Five drains that could from Harappa and Mohenjo-daro show thatthe volume of water that flowed through these structures must have beenlike nothing seen before by ancient wayfarers.

John Marshall writes: "A remarkable feature of the city of Mohenjo-daro isthe very elaborate drainage system that exists even in the poorest quartersof the city. Every street and lane had one or two water-channels with brickor stone covers that could easily be lifted to remove obstructions."

"In some cases the water-channels were so considerable in width that itwas found impossible to bridge them by ordinary means. This difficulty wasovercome by closing them with corbeled roofs."

(Marshall, I, pp. 278-9)

1. Inside of the Harappa phase drain. This view along Drain [8] into themound shows details of the brick construction, the robbed out area at theeast end of the drain (background), sloping strata above indicating theexistence of an open street drain along the same line as the earlier bakedbrick drain, and the later Period 3C architecture built after the open drainwas filled in and the area leveled. The bricks from the eastern part of thedrain were robbed by tunneling into the sediment along the line of thedrain from the East.2. Drain, Harappa. Excavated by the Harappa Archaeological ResearchProject in 1993, this large corbelled drain was built in the middle of anabandoned gateway at Harappa to dispose of rainwater and sewage.3. Corbelled Arch Drain, Mohenjo-daro. The corbelled arch drain from thegreat bath in Mohenjo-daro is large enough to walk into. It has a smallledge on either side of the actual drain channel.4. Corbelled Drain exiting the Great Bath, Mohenjo-daro. his drain cutsthrough the edge of the so-called granary. If the entire drain wereconstructed along with the Great Bath, this feature would indicate that the

Ancient Indus City Drains https://www.harappa.com/blog/ancient-indus-city-drains

2 of 3 9/29/16, 12:10 AM

original "granary" was built before the great bath.

Excavations

Log in or register to post comments

© Harappa.com 1995-2016 21!

Ancient Indus City Drains https://www.harappa.com/blog/ancient-indus-city-drains

3 of 3 9/29/16, 12:10 AM