TOWN PLANNING

Presentation by : Group 5
Jhanak Mathur, Shramana Ghosh, Tanish Jena, Apoorva Bhatnagar, Samiksha Jain
 INTRODUCTION
• Mohenjo-daro meaning 'Mound of the Dead Men’ in Sindhi, was one
of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization
and one of the world's earliest major cities, contemporaneous with
the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Minoan Crete.

• The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization

(3300–1300 BCE) located in the western region of South Asia, and
spread over what are now Pakistan, Northwest India, and eastern
Afghanistan.

• Excavations were first conducted in 1921-22, in the ancient cities of

Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, both of which are now in Pakistan.

• Mohenjo-daro was the most advanced city of its time, with

remarkably sophisticated civil engineering and urban planning.
It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980

DUE TO ITS ELABORATE TOWN PLAN, MOHENJO-DARO WAS

CONSIDERED A COSMOPOLITAN CITY, THE CAPITAL OF THE
CIVILIZATION WITH PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT RACES MINGLING WITH
THE LOCAL POPULACE.
LOCATION
• Mohenjo-daro is located west of the Indus
River in Larkana District, Sindh, Pakistan,
in a central position between the Indus
River and the Ghaggar-Hakra River.

• It is situated on a Pleistocene (Ice

Age) ridge in the middle of the flood plain
of the Indus River Valley, around 28
kilometers from the town of Larkana.

• The ridge was prominent during the time

of the Indus Valley Civilization, allowing
the city to stand above the surrounding
flood, but subsequent flooding has since
buried most of the ridge in silt deposits.
The Indus still flows east of the site, but
the Ghaggar-Hakra riverbed on the
western side is now dry.
 TOWN PLANNING

• The covered area of Mohenjo-daro is estimated

at 300 hectares.
• The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History
offers a "weak" estimate of a peak population of
around 40,000.

• Mohenjo-Daro is divided into two sections:

1) CITADEL: Smaller in area but highly developed.
2) LOWER TOWN: Large in area but less developed
than the citadel.
Great Courtyard
College Hall (Priestly
Great Bath Residence)
Warehouse Stupa Area
Or Great
Granary

Pillared Hall

The Citadel – a mud-brick mound around 12 meters The lower city had a central marketplace, with a large
(39 ft) high – is known to have supported public central well. Individual households or groups of
baths, a large residential structure designed to house households obtained their water from smaller wells.
about 5,000 citizens, and two large assembly halls.
 PLANNING FEATURES
• The quality of municipal town planning suggests knowledge of urban
planning and efficient municipal governments which placed a high
priority on hygiene. Mohenjo-daro has a planned layout with
rectilinear buildings arranged on a grid plan.
• In Mohenjo-daro, the urban plan included the world's first urban
sanitation systems.
• Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water
from wells. Individual households or groups of households obtained
their water from smaller wells. Waste water was channeled to
covered drains that lined the major streets.
• Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes
• The houses were built on plinths that rose above the street level
with stairs recessed at the wall at the front door. The planning did
not allow any hindrance on the roads.
• Mohenjo-daro had no series of city walls, but was fortified with guard
towers to the west of the main settlement, and defensive
fortifications to the south.
• The city also had large platforms perhaps intended as defense
against flooding.
 WATER SUPPLY AND WELLS
• The location of Mohenjo-daro was built in a relatively short period of
time, with the water supply system and wells being some of the first
planned constructions.
• With the excavations done so far, over 700 wells are present at
Mohenjo-daro, alongside drainage and bathing systems.
• This number is unheard of when compared to other civilizations at
the time, such as Egypt or Mesopotamia, and the quantity of wells
transcribes as one well for every three houses.
• Because the large number of wells, it is believed that the inhabitants
relied solely on annual rainfall, as well as the Indus River's course
remaining close to the site, alongside the wells providing water for
long periods of time in the case of the city coming under siege.
• Due to the period in which these wells were built and used, it is likely
that the circular brick well design used at this and many other
Harappan sites are an invention that should be credited to the Indus
civilization, as there is no existing evidence of this design from
Mesopotamia or Egypt at this time, and even later.
• Sewage and waste water for buildings at the site were disposed of via
a centralized drainage system that ran alongside the site's streets.
These drains that ran alongside the road were effective at allowing
most human waste and sewage to be disposed of as the drains tool
the waste most likely toward the Indus River
 ARCHITECTURE
• Indus Valley Civilization used mudbrick extensively, as can be seen in the ruins of Mohenjo-daro.
• In the Indus Valley Civilization particularly, all bricks corresponded to sizes in a perfect ratio of 4:2:1,
and made use of the decimal system.
• The ratio for brick dimensions 4:2:1 is even today considered optimal for effective bonding.
• The buildings of the city were particularly advanced, with structures constructed of same-sized sun dried
bricks of baked mud and burned wood.
 NOTABLE
ELEMENTS
A Buddhist stupa was built
during second century BC on
top of the citadel mound
ruins.
Excavation of the city
revealed very tall wells which
it seems were continually
built up as flooding and
rebuilding raised the elevation
of street level

The Great Bath of

Mohenjo-daro is called the
"earliest public water tank of
the ancient world"

Labelled as College of
Priests, there was a large
building with several rooms
and three verandas, and two
staircases leading to roof and
upper floor.
The climate around Mohenjo-daro is very hot most of the
year and the design of the city takes advantage of wind
and differences in day and night temperatures to create
a more comfortable microclimate in the city. 
• The houses had thick walls made of baked bricks and
most houses had two stories. 
• The houses had very few window openings and these
were mainly towards the smaller side streets or
interior courtyards around which rooms were
arranged. 
• The near lack of openings and the thick walls kept the
houses cool, but the lack of air movement might mean
that people spent most of the day outdoors. 
Well shaded streets provided an escape from the heat.
 FLOODING AND REBUILDING

According to a theory, the city could have been flooded and silted over, perhaps six times,
and later rebuilt in the same location.
For some archaeologists, it was believed that a final flood that helped engulf the city in a sea
of mud brought about the abandonment of the site.
Gregory Possehl was the first to theorize that the floods were caused by overuse and
expansion upon the land, and that the mud flood was not the reason the site was abandoned.
Instead of a mud flood wiping part of the city out in one fell swoop, Possehl coined the
possibility of constant mini-floods throughout the year, paired with the land being worn out
by crops, pastures, and resources for bricks and pottery spelled the downfall of the site.
THANK YOU!