Editing Mohenjo-daro (section)

== Architecture and urban infrastructure ==
{{Further|Sanitation of the Indus Valley Civilisation|Harappan architecture}}
[[File:Moen Jo Daro (The Mond of the Deads).jpg|thumb|Regularity of streets and buildings suggests the influence of ancient [[urban planning]] in Mohenjo-daro's construction.]]
[[File:Mohenjo-daro.jpg|thumb|View of the site's [[Great Bath, Mohenjo-daro|Great Bath]], showing the surrounding urban layout]]
Mohenjo-daro has a [[planned city|planned layout]] with [[wikt:rectilinear|rectilinear]] buildings arranged on a [[grid plan]].<ref>Mohan Pant and Shjui Fumo, "[https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jaabe/4/1/4_1_51/_pdf The Grid and Modular Measures in The Town Planning of Mohenjodaro and Kathmandu Valley: A Study on Modular Measures in Block and Plot Divisions in the Planning of Mohenjodaro and Sirkap (Pakistan), and Thimi (Kathmandu Valley)]"; ''Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineerng'' 59, May 2005.</ref> Most were built of fired and mortared [[brick]]; some incorporated sun-dried [[mud-brick]] and wooden superstructures. The covered area of Mohenjo-daro is estimated at 300 [[hectare]]s.<ref>T.S. SUBRAMANIAN, [http://www.frontline.in/arts-and-culture/heritage/harappan-surprises/article6032206.ece?homepage=true ''Harappan surprises.''] 13 June 2014 – www.frontline.in</ref> The ''Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History'' offers a "weak" estimate of a peak population of around 40,000.<ref>Peter Clark (editor), ''The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History'', Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 158–59; "since it is impossible to ascertain what proportion of the city was used for habitation the basis for this [population] estimate is weak." For lower area estimate of 85 hectares, see note 25, citing U. Singh, ''A History of Ancient and Medieval India,'' Delhi, Pearson Education, 2008, p. 149. See also FR Alchin and G Erdosy, The Archaeology of Early Historic Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States, Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 57.<!-- ISBN needed --></ref>

The sheer size of the city, and its provision of public buildings and facilities, suggests a high level of social organization.<ref name=McIntosh389 /> The city is divided into two parts, the so-called Citadel and the Lower City. The Citadel – a mud-brick mound around {{convert|12|m|ft}} high – is known to have supported public baths, a large residential structure designed to house about 5,000 citizens, and two large assembly halls. The city had a central marketplace, with a large central well. Individual households or groups of households obtained their water from smaller wells. Waste water was channeled to covered drains that lined the major streets. Some houses, presumably those of more prestigious  inhabitants, include rooms that appear to have been set aside for bathing, and one building had an underground furnace (known as a [[hypocaust]]), possibly for heated bathing. Most houses had inner courtyards, with doors that opened onto side-lanes. Some buildings had two stories. {{citation needed|date=February 2014}}

=== Major buildings ===
[[File:Great bath view Mohenjodaro.JPG|thumb|The Great Bath]]
In 1950, Sir Mortimer Wheeler identified one large building in Mohenjo-daro as a "Great Granary". Certain wall-divisions in its massive wooden superstructure appeared to be grain storage-bays, complete with air-ducts to dry the grain. According to Wheeler, carts would have brought grain from the countryside and unloaded them directly into the bays. However, [[Jonathan Mark Kenoyer]] noted the complete lack of evidence for grain at the "granary", which, he argued, might therefore be better termed a "Great Hall" of uncertain function.<ref name=KenoyerArticle>Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (1998). “Indus Cities, Towns and Villages”, ''Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization''. [[Islamabad]]: American Institute of Pakistan Studies. p. 65.</ref> Close to the "Great Granary" is a large and elaborate public bath, sometimes called the [[Great Bath]]. From a colonnaded courtyard, steps lead down to the brick-built pool, which was waterproofed by a lining of [[bitumen]]. The pool measures {{convert|12|m|ft}} long, {{convert|7|m|ft}} wide and {{convert|2.4|m|ft}} deep. It may have been used for religious purification. Other large buildings include a "Pillared Hall", thought to be an assembly hall of some kind, and the so-called "College Hall", a complex of buildings comprising 78 rooms, thought to have been a priestly residence. {{citation needed|date=February 2014}}

=== Fortifications ===
[[File:Other side of Moenjodaro by Usman Ghani.jpg|thumb|Excavation of the city revealed very tall [[Water well|wells]] (left), which it seems were continually built up as flooding and rebuilding raised the elevation of street level.<ref>McIntosh (2008), p. 118. "More than seven hundred wells were sunk at Mohenjo-daro when the city was built. Over the centuries houses were rebuilt and street levels rose; new courses of bricks were therefore added to the wells to keep their tops at the same height with respect to the street. The removal of earth and debris during the excavation of the city has left many wells standing like towers high above the exposed remnants of earlier streets."</ref>]]

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. Considering these fortifications and the structure of other major [[Indus valley]] cities like [[Harappa]], it is postulated that Mohenjo-daro was an administrative center. Both Harappa and Mohenjo-daro share relatively the same architectural layout, and were generally not heavily fortified like other Indus Valley sites. It is obvious from the identical city layouts of all Indus sites that there was some kind of political or administrative centrality, but the extent and functioning of an administrative center remains unclear.

=== 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.
<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wright |first1=Rita P. |title=The ancient Indus : urbanism, economy, and society |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-57652-9 |page=235}}</ref> With the excavations done so far, over 700 wells are present at Mohenjo-daro, alongside drainage and bathing systems.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wright |first1=Rita P. |title=The ancient Indus : urbanism, economy, and society |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-57652-9 |page=237}}</ref> This number is unheard of when compared to other civilisations at the time, such as Egypt or Mesopotamia, and the quantity of wells transcribes as one well for every three houses.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jansen |first1=M. |title=Water Supply and Sewage Disposal at Mohenjo-Daro |journal=World Archaeology |date=October 1989 |volume=21 |issue=2 |page=180 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1989.9980100 |jstor=124907 |pmid=16470995 }}</ref> Because of 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jansen |first1=M. |title=Water Supply and Sewage Disposal at Mohenjo-Daro |journal=World Archaeology |date=October 1989 |volume=21 |issue=2 |page=182 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1989.9980100 |jstor=124907 |pmid=16470995 }}</ref> 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 civilisation, as there is no existing evidence of this design from Mesopotamia or Egypt at this time, and even later.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jansen |first1=M. |title=Water Supply and Sewage Disposal at Mohenjo-Daro |journal=World Archaeology |date=October 1989 |volume=21 |issue=2 |page=179 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1989.9980100 |jstor=124907 |pmid=16470995 }}</ref> Sewage and waste water for buildings at the site were disposed of via a centralized drainage system that ran alongside the site's streets.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jansen |first1=M. |title=Water Supply and Sewage Disposal at Mohenjo-Daro |journal=World Archaeology |date=October 1989 |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=177–192 |jstor=124907 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1989.9980100 |pmid=16470995 }}</ref> These drains that ran alongside the road were effective at allowing most human waste and sewage to be disposed of as the drains most likely took the waste toward the Indus River.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ratnagar |first1=Shereen |title=The drainage systems at MohenjoDaro and Nausharo: A technological breakthrough or a stinking disaster? |journal=Studies in People's History |date=2014 |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=4 |doi=10.1177/2348448914537334|s2cid=131145647 }}</ref>

=== Flooding and rebuilding ===
The city also had large platforms perhaps intended as defense against flooding.<ref name=McIntosh389>McIntosh (2008), p. 389. "The enormous amount of labor involved in the creation of Mohenjo-daro's flood defense platforms (calculated at around 4 million man-days) indicates the existence of an authority able to plan the construction and to mobilize and feed the requisite labor force."</ref> According to a theory first advanced by Wheeler, the city could have been flooded and silted over, perhaps six times, and later rebuilt in the same location.<ref name=Dales>[[George F. Dales]], "[https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/civilization-and-floods-in-the-indus-valley/ Civilization and Floods in the Indus Valley]", ''Expedition Magazine'', July 1965.</ref> 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.<ref name="auto">{{cite journal |last1=Possehl |first1=Gregory |title=The Mohenjo-daro Floods: A Reply |journal=American Anthropologist |date=February 1967 |volume=69 |issue=1 |pages=32–40 |jstor=670484 |doi=10.1525/aa.1967.69.1.02a00040 |doi-access=free }}</ref> [[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.<ref name="auto" /> 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Possehl |first1=Gregory |title=The Mohenjo-daro Floods: A Reply |journal=American Anthropologist |date=February 1967 |volume=69 |issue=1 |page=38 |jstor=670484 |doi=10.1525/aa.1967.69.1.02a00040 |doi-access=free }}</ref>