Moenjodaro

Visited May 2022

As it has been a while since the last review of the one of the most important site of the long ‘gone and forgotten’ civilization of Indus valley, I’ve chosen this one to write a short review of it, one year after my visit Pakistan. Now when travelling around Pakistan is safe (and still very, very cheap) I wonder why so few decide to visit this amazing country and its amazing monuments and nature.

In my opinion for each traveller to Pakistan Mohenjo Daro should be destination NUMBER ONE. I’ve chosen it to be my UNESCO site 700th and a birthday gift for myself. I remember when I was at school and learning about ancient civilizations, Mohenjo Daro was the most mysterious place and ‘Harappan civilization’ sounded so different and exciting… At the university when I was studying linguistics and comparative grammar, the writing and symbols found in MD (together with those from Dholavira) were firing my imagination… (And now, after having visited MH and Harappa, Indus script remains something that I like to look at in the books and my photos, simply for the pleasure of looking and thinking about that past…)

For sure, Mohenjo Daro is the most difficult to reach UNESCO site in Pakistan because of its remote location. There’s an airport very close to the archaeological site and the museum but the commercial flights stopped couple of years ago and no airlines are interested of relaunching connections from/to here. And …

As a site of one of the major archaeological finds of the 20th C Moenjodaro had long been on my target list. It is, however, what I might term an “archaeologist’s site” without the artistic or architectural “wow” of e.g. Egyptian sites, but we were not disappointed and enjoyed trying to understand its complicated and somewhat confusing remains and following the dig history and preservation problems..

It is worth realising that it wasn’t until 1924 that Sir John Marshall, DG of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), announced to the World the discovery of a new Bronze Age Civilisation about as old as those of Mesopotamia and Egypt. This discovery was made via digs at 2 sites – That at Harappa (almost 700 kms NE) commenced 2 years before that at Moenjodaro but, even though an alternative name given to the Indus Valley civilisation is “Harappan”, Moenjoraro has become the more iconic and the more usual one to be used in photos accompanying articles about the civilisation as a whole.

The picture chosen by Els to introduce Moenjodaro on this web site is of a mound, topped by what turned out to be a ruined Buddhist Stupa from c 2nd C AD – and it was this which first drew attention to the site, but without any idea of what would be found there - “In 1921 Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni conclusively proved that the remains at Harappa went back to a very early period, but …

I visited the site with my college (Notre Dame Institute) and it was the most rememberable experience I had. Witnessing one of the most oldest archeological ruins was an experience words can not express. According to the time period the people seemed highly civilized and having enough knowledge of an orgnised urban structure. But there was no information provided to us about the medical facilities they used, neither any medical artifacts was seen in the museum. Allover not a place to be missed by tourist.