Mohenjo-Daro (Mound of the Dead) A part of the Harappan Civilization, Mohenjo-Daro is located in the southern part of modern-day Pakistan

(in the Sindh Province). Mohenjo-Daro is probably the best known of the Indus Valley civilization cities. Similar in style and date to Harappa in north Pakistan, it was built almost entirely of kiln-fired bricks between 2,500 and 2,100 BC. Originally square in outline, the City was laid out along the lines of a grid. Twelve main streets divided it, of which eleven blocks were residential with the twelfth section being dominated by the Citadel. With roughly 30,000 citizens, the city demanded to have the latest in housing development. This included a strive toward cleanliness and sanitation. Citizens were conveniently able to dispose of their garbage through a slit cut into their house which would then fall into containers lined up on the street belowThe city had a sophisticated sewage system with regular manhole covers. Public latrines for every block and sewers were large enough to walk in. House drains, which were enclosed systems, were made of clay pipes and were connected to the sewers by open brick gutters. In short, Mohenjo-Daro had the most advanced sanitization system of its era. Mohenjo-Daro was first occupied about 3,500 BC, and it was continuously occupied until between 1700 and 1300 BC. Its Indus occupations lasted between about 26001900 BC. Archaeologists first visited Mohenjo-Daro in 1911. Several excavations occurred in the 1920s through 1931. Small probes took place in the 1930s, and subsequent digs occurred in 1950 and 1964. Most Indus people did not live in cities at all. Perhaps 9 out of 10 people were farmers and traders who lived in small villages. As with other cities in the Indus Valley, Mohenjo-Daro relied on trade, domestically and internationally. Farmers brought food into the cities. City workers made such things as pots, beads and cotton cloth. Traders brought the materials workers needed, and took away finished goods to trade in other cities. Trade goods included terracotta pots, beads, gold and silver, coloured gem stones such as turquoise and lapis lazuli, metals, flints (for making stone tools), seashells and pearls. Minerals came from Iran and Afghanistan. Lead and copper came from India. Jade came from China and cedar tree wood was floated down the rivers from Kashmir and the Himalayas. Between 1900 and 1700 BC, this great civilisation started to fall apart. Trade with Mesopotamia stopped. Archaeological evidence shows how things got worse. The Great Bath at Mohenjo-Daro was built over. The city mounds got overcrowded. Drains blocked up. Some traders even hid their valuables under the floors of their houses! Research has suggested that natural disasters probably made the citizens lose hope, so they stopped bothering about the upkeep of the city.