1

Mohenjo-Daro means “ Hill of the Dead”. This name was given to the city

hundreds of years after the civilization collapsed. But in about 2500 B.C., It was

thriving city of around 40,000 people. Mohenjo-Daro was carefully planned.

There was an artificial hill on which public buildings stood, High and protected.

The streets were laid out in a grid pattern. There were drains under the streets.

Homes were comfortable and had indoor plumbing. Being clean, both in body

and spirit, seems to have been very important to people of the city.

2

Baked Bricks used in construction:

In 1856, British railroad engineers learned of ancient bricks that were formed exactly alike. Those bricks were the first clues to the ancient civilization that once

thrived in the Indus Valley.

In 1856, a group of British railroad engineers uncovered an ancient and

advanced civilization. The engineers were laying tracks through the Indus

River Valley in present day Pakistan. They searched the area for stone to make

ballast. Ballast is crushed rock placed around railroad tracks to drain water

from the path of the train. The engineers found bricks that seemed very old,

but were formed exactly alike. The local people told the engineers of the ruins

of an ancient city made of the same bricks. The engineers soon realized that

the bricks were part of one of the earliest advanced civilizations in history.

We don't know what the ancient people of the Indus River Valley called their cities. This site is now known as

Mohenjo Daro, which means "hill of the dead."

3

Archaeololgists have uncovered expertly planned cities built with a grid pattern of wide, straight streets.

Wealthy families lived in houses built around a courtyard. There were indoor

wells for water. There were toilets, as well as bathrooms where people bathed by

pouring pitchers of water over themselves.

Archaeologists think that the Great Bath was used for religious functions. The

water may have been used to renew and purify the bathers. The poor measures

39 feet long, 23 feet wide, and 8 feet deep.

4

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The Great bath.

This well would have been set into the floor of a home. Here , it stands like a

chimney because the surrounding earth has been removed during excavation.

5

Archaeologists think that they used well managed toilet, A wooden plank or a

longer brick would have been formed its seat.

Mohenjo-Daro had a complex drainage system for wastewater and sewage.

Drains in homes and buildings connected to drains under Streets.

6

Many features at the ruins of Mohenjo-Daro Suggest that the city’s inhabitants

valued cleanliness, both for individuals and for the community as a whole.