HistoryCity Builders of the Indus Valley
The scribe crouches beside a wide brick-paved street in Mohenjo-Daro, pressing one hand against a drainage channel cut precisely into the ground, tracing its path with a stylus and murmuring notes about how carefully its builders planned every block.
- Point to the Indus River basin on a map and name at least one country it passes through today
- List two features that made Indus Valley cities unusually well planned
- Describe one reason archaeologists consider these cities among the earliest large urban settlements in the world
Key terms
- urban planning
- Designing a city's streets, water, and buildings in an organized way before they are built
- grid pattern
- Streets laid out in straight lines that cross at right angles, like a checkerboard
- drainage system
- Channels and pipes built to carry waste water away from homes and streets
- archaeologist
- A scientist who studies the past by digging up and examining objects and ruins
A City Drawn on a Grid
Most ancient towns grew in tangled, unplanned clusters, but Mohenjo-Daro was laid out deliberately. Wide main streets ran in straight lines and crossed at right angles, dividing the city into neat blocks. This grid suggests the builders planned the whole settlement in advance, hinting at organized leadership and shared rules about how a city should be arranged.
Engineering for Health
The most striking feature of these cities is water management. Covered brick drains ran beneath the streets, and almost every house connected to them, carrying waste away. Many homes had their own wells and bathing areas. This city-wide sanitation, rare for its time, shows the Indus people understood that clean water and waste removal kept a crowded city healthy.
Worked examples
What does the drainage system tell us about Indus society?
- Observe the evidence: covered drains ran under nearly every street and connected to most homes.
- Ask what such a system requires: shared planning, skilled labor, and rules everyone followed.
- Infer the implication: a single household could not build a city-wide network alone.
- Draw the conclusion: the Indus Valley had organized leadership and cooperation across the whole city.
Answer: The city-wide drains show the Indus people had organized planning and shared rules, not just individual homebuilders working alone.
Activity
Sort each clue below into the group it belongs to: features the builders put underground, or features the builders put above ground in Mohenjo-Daro.
Practice
Explain why a grid street pattern is a sign of careful city planning.
Describe one health problem the covered drainage system would have helped prevent.
Common mistakes to avoid
- The Indus Valley people built pyramids like the Egyptians.They built no pyramids; the Indus and Egyptian civilizations were separate and developed different kinds of architecture.
Check your understanding
The Indus Valley Civilization grew up along which river?
What made the city planning of Mohenjo-Daro remarkable for its time?
Archaeologists call Mohenjo-Daro one of the world's earliest 'urban' settlements. What does urban mean here?
Recap
The Indus Valley cities such as Mohenjo-Daro were among the earliest large planned cities, famous for grid-pattern streets and a city-wide covered drainage system that reveal careful planning and organized leadership.
Reflect
Which features of your own town show planning, and which seem to have grown by accident?