Photo: Bhajish Bharathan · CC BY-SA 4.0A Harappan city in a dry land that lived by catching every drop: dams on two seasonal streams fed a chain of reservoirs cut into the rock around the town.
Two streams, the Mansar and the Manhar, were dammed and led by channels into reservoirs set inside the city walls. The largest, on the east, is about 73 m long and 29 m wide, cut deep into the bedrock with steps down to the water. Drains and stone-lined channels connected the citadel, the middle town and the lower town.
It is among the oldest planned water-harvesting systems in the world, and the forerunner of Gujarat’s long craft of tanks and stepwells.
ExcavationHundreds of sandstone shelters where people lived and painted for thousands of years, the oldest gallery of human art in Bharat.
ExcavationEleven molar crowns from nine adults with neat holes drilled into them, the earliest evidence of dentistry on living people anywhere.
ExcavationA Sarasvati-valley settlement whose levels run from Hakra ware pit-dwellings up to a mature Harappan town, and whose earliest dates are argued over.
ExcavationThe oldest ploughed field yet excavated anywhere, with its furrows still visible in a grid.
ExcavationThe first city of the civilisation to be dug, which gave its name to the whole culture.
ExcavationThe largest city of the Sindhu valley, laid out in a grid of baked-brick streets with covered drains and a great bath on its citadel.
ExcavationRows of small clay-lined fire pits on raised brick platforms, with a well and bathing floors beside them.
ExcavationA small steatite seal of a figure seated in a yogic posture, wearing a horned headdress and surrounded by animals, whom many see as Pashupati, Lord of creatures.
