Secrets in the Stones- The Urban planning of Mohenjodaro- Part 2

This post is 2 part of our blog series: Whispers from the valley- life and legacy of the indus civilization

 

As the sun rises higher in the sky casting a glow and long shadows along the streets of Mohenjodaro, ila returns from the well water splashing gently here and there from her clay pot. She walks confidently never once lossing her balance, never getting lost because here city was built with the intention of designs and wisdom which still leaves modern minds in admiration.

Mohenjo-daro wasn't just any city it was a masterpiece built by ancient urban planning. Over 4,000 years before long before the rise of empires the people of Indus valley civilization were building city with great planning and architecture, perfectly aligned streets, smart drainage system and houses made of baked bricks.

Each streets Ila walks on is a part of a grid a planned layout where roads cross each other at right angles. This kind of pattern which are now associate with modern town planning existed here thousands of years ago.

Beside every house including Ila's there were drainage channels running along the roads. These drains were connected to soak pits or larger underground sewers keeping city clean and free of stagnant water. Waste didn't lie around it was carried away. A system that many ancient civilizations did not even imagined.

At the heart of the city there's a structure that even Ila has seen from distant the Great bath. Made of fine bricks it is believed to have been used for rituals bathing. Imagine a place where a entire community could come together not just to bath perhaps to pray, celebrate or cleans.

Public wells were scattered around everywhere to making sure that water was accessible to everyone. Some houses like Ila's even had their own private well just a sign of how advanced the city was with meeting daily needs.

And then there's mystery of standardization. The bricks used in every house, every wall, and every street corner follow the same proportion 1:2:4. The people of this land had a sense of uniformity and system that still stuns archeologists today.

Was there a king or a council that guided all this? Was it a shared understanding of balance and harmony? No one knows for sure. But what remains clear is that Mohenjodaro was not just a city it was a vision of how people can live together in cleanliness, dignity and structure.

And Ila in her simple daily routines was part of this legacy.

In the next post we will uncover the mystery of seals those tiny carved stones that still guard the secrets of a language no one can read yet.