Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus | Explore & Learn

Cities: Mohenjo-daro

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South Asia's first cities were established around 2600 B.C. in what is now Pakistan and northwestern India. Large cities and smaller towns grew up along important trade routes as administrative and ritual centers. Major excavations have been undertaken at Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, and Dholavira. Surrounded by imposing mud-brick walls, the cities were built on a grid pattern with different walled sectors or mounds, oriented in different directions. Towering high above the plain, with fired brick gateways and mud-brick walls, the city would have been a landmark, visible for many miles. Inhabited continuously for more than seven hundred years, these cities were home to effective and powerful rulers who were supported by generations of artisans, traders, and farmers.


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Images, from top to bottom: Mohenjo-daro, one of the great cities of the Indus Valley civilization. Copyright © J.M. Kenoyer. Torso of a "priest-king," ca. 2000–1900 B.C.; Harappan. Indus Valley, Mohenjo-daro, DK 1909. National Museum, Karachi NMP 50.852. Courtesy of the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Ministry of Minorities, Culture, Sports, Tourism, and Youth Affairs, Government of Pakistan.

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