Over four millennia ago, there was an astonishing city on the banks of the Indus River in present-day Mohenjo-daro. Its ruins are now peacefully located in the province of Sindh, though many years ago, it was among the most developed urban capitals of the ancient world. The city of Mohenjo-Daro was a part of the great Indus Valley civilisation, one that had its own planned cities, trade systems, and impressive engineering knowledge. The city’s drainage system is one of its greatest mysteries and accomplishments, as it is also characterised by many other great mysteries.
Mohenjo-daro means ‘a mound of the dead’. Archaeologists began excavating the site in the 1920s and discovered something extraordinary. The archaeologist who discovered it was the Indian archaeologist Rakhaldas Banerji (an employee of the Archaeological Survey of India). With each removal of layers of earth, a whole city started to form — a city with meticulously planned straight streets, brick houses and advanced water systems.
Mohenjo-Daro appears to be, at first sight, a city which is composed of modern living. It was a grid-street city with streets that ran north-south and east-west. This phenomenon was because houses were constructed using similar types of baked bricks, and most houses had more than two rooms, a courtyard, and their own wells. It was built on two floors in some houses, which indicated that the people of Mohenjo-daro were well aware of the firm architectural design.
But the best thing about the city was inside the streets — the drainage system. The archaeologists discovered that nearly all houses had connections to covered drains running along the sides of the streets. Stone slabs or brick lids were used to cover these drains, which were constructed with well-fitted bricks. This implied that domestic wastewater could pass through the drains, and without polluting the streets, it could escape out of the city.
This was one highly developed system that was ahead of its era. Actually, most of the ancient cities located on the earth lacked adequate drainage systems thousands of years ago. The people of Mohenjo-Daro had already made an elaborate system, which kept their city clean and organised.
Bathing was common in every house with a small shower place where people could bathe. The drainage from these regions was directed into the main street’s drainage systems through these pipes or routes. Even a few houses had small soak pit bins, which received solid waste to ensure that the drains did not get clogged. These little yet intelligent details indicate that the Mohenjo-daro folks knew about sanitation and the health of the population much earlier than the folk of other times.
The Great Bath is one of the most popular structures in the city. It was a pool in the shape of a rectangle that was created using waterproof bricks and was surrounded by rooms and corridors. The archaeologists think that the Great Bath could have been for religious ceremonies or crowds. The pool had its own drainage system, showing the city’s planning.
The other intriguing fact about Mohenjo-daro is that it has not found a single large palace or temple. This finding implies that the city could have been ruled differently compared to other ancient civilisations like Ancient Egypt or the Mesopotamian civilisation, whereby kings and rulers constructed huge monuments. Rather, the homogenous design of Mohenjo-Daro implies a community that appreciated organisation, collaboration, and community design.
The city later fell, though it had its successes. There is still a debate among historians on the reasons that led to the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Climate change, or river shifting or floods, is believed by some to have caused the people to leave the city. Others imply that environmental issues or economic changes might have contributed to it. Since the script of the people of the Indus Valley is yet to be deciphered, much information about their life is still undiscovered.
Mohenjo-Daro is considered to be one of the most significant archaeological sites across the globe today. It has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has made it known all over the world due to its historical importance and the necessity to maintain it in order to pass it to future generations. Weathering, increased groundwater and human activity are, however, threats to the ruins; thus, conservation efforts are very crucial.
The fact that Mohenjo-Daro is so old is not only amazing but also the fact that it was so cleverly designed. The city demonstrates that the inhabitants of the city more than four thousand years ago knew how to arrange the city, clean it, and engineer it at a level that still impresses contemporary scientists and historians. The drains beneath the streets are well constructed, which gives the society a sense of care for cleanliness, health, and proper organization.
Mohenjo-Daro teaches us, in a number of ways, that human innovation is not modern-day. The inhabitants of the Indus Valley started to construct communities in a clean, efficient, and thoughtful way long before the skyscrapers and smart cities could exist. The secret drains of Mohenjo-Daro are not only ancient pipes; they are demonstrations of the ingenuity and intelligence of one of the most ancient civilisations in the world.
Even now, when archaeologists keep excavating the ruins, Mohenjo-Daro remains untapped with numerous secrets, hiding beneath the dust of Sindh.