Archaeological Ruins at Mohenjo-daro, World Heritage Site in Pakistan

Mohenjo-daro means “Hill of Death. The vast ruins along the Indus River in southern Pakistan are the remnants of a metropolis that flourished from 2500 to 1500 BC. With a fortress on the west side and a well-developed urban area on the east side, it still retains the appearance of a city created through urban planning in the early days of mankind.

Here, a World Heritage enthusiast explains why the ruins of Mohenjo-daro are a World Heritage Site in an easy-to-understand manner. Read this and you will definitely learn more about the ruins of Mohenjo-daro!

What are the ruins of Mohenjo-daro? What is its location and its relationship to the Indus Civilization?

The hill of the dead, which has been given the frightening name of “Hill of Death”.

First of all, the Indus script has not been deciphered even today, so we do not have detailed information about the Indus civilization (circa 2600 BC – 1500 BC). Therefore, please understand that what I am about to describe here is only a prediction based on our research of the city.

Mohenjo-daro is the best-preserved urban site in South Asia.It is located on the right bank of the Indus River, 510 km northeast of Karachi in southern Pakistan and 28 km south of Larkana. Named “Hill of Death (Mohenjo-Daro)” in the local language, the site was an unvisited mound where the dead slept until 1922, when the ruins were discovered. This is a representative city of the Indus civilization, which is also famous as one of the four major civilizations in the world, and is estimated to have flourished from around 2500 BC to 1800 BC.

The ruins are a city of the Indus civilization with even a sewer system.

Excavations have revealed the life and art of the inhabitants, and the city was well maintained, built mostly of baked bricks, and even had a large bathhouse. An elaborate drainage system was in place, and there were even wells and sewers, making it a fairly technologically advanced city for its time.

Mohenjo-daro consists of two areas.On the west side is the fortified area where a brick chedi was built in the 2nd century. On the east side, standing along the Indus River, the urban ruins are spread out.This was a planned city with intersecting streets laid out at right angles and even a drainage system.

Why was Mohenjo-daro destroyed? What is its mystery?

In fact, despite the vastness of the ruins, no royal palace or temple has been discovered, and it is believed that no one in authority “existed” here.There is also a statue called the “Priest King” found at the site, but there is actually no evidence that this also represents a king or priest.

Although it is estimated that as many as 40,000 people lived in Mohenjo-daro, the original name of the city is unknown because the Indus script has not been deciphered.Nor is it known why the city was destroyed.In recent years, there is a theory that the city was decimated by flooding from the Indus River due to climate change and that the inhabitants had to migrate to the surrounding area, but it is still too early to say for sure.

Was Mohenjo-daro destroyed by nuclear warfare?

It’s a ton of theory… The white bone corpses found at the Mohenjo-daro site may be the result of a “nuclear bomb” as they show signs of exposure to high temperatures and are thought to have been affected by radiation. Some researchers believe that this may have been caused by a nuclear bomb.Indeed, there is no volcanic activity in the surrounding area, so this situation would have to be as hot as a nuclear bomb to be possible…on that basis.

Although there are some nuclear bomb-like descriptions in the ancient Indian epic “Mahabharata,” such as “Indra’s Thunder,” the evidence is quite weak, as the remains have been analyzed as being from 2030 BC to 1930 BC, which does not fit with the period when the city was destroyed.It is only “romantic,” I guess.

For what reason is Mohenjo-daro on the World Heritage List?

The archaeological site of Mohenjo-daro was evaluated on the following points.

Registration Criterion (ii)
The point is that Mohenjo-daro is one of the oldest planned cities in the Indian subcontinent and served as a model for subsequent city building.

Registration Criterion (iii )
That well-preserved urban ruins reveal the existence of the Indus civilization.

Conclusions and Thoughts of a World Heritage Maniac

The Indus civilization is so famous that you must have learned about it during your school days, but you may be surprised to know that there are many things you don’t know about it among the four major civilizations, but its existence was revealed with the discovery of Mohenjo-daro, which is like the origin of architecture in the history of architecture in the Indian subcontinent.It is a place.

*The content here is a discussion derived from research conducted by World Heritage enthusiasts. As for the data, interpretation differs depending on the media.