Pakistan
Moenjodaro
The Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro are the remains of the most ancient planned city of the Indus Valley Civilization.
Moenjodaro was the most advanced city of its time (3rd millennium BCE), with remarkably sophisticated civil engineering and urban planning. It had considerable influence on the urbanization of the rest of the Indian subcontinent. The city was divided into two sections: the acropolis with the major structures, and the lower town with private houses and commercial buildings.
Community Perspective: this was one of the major archaeological finds of the 20th century, Solivagant’s review details its history of discovery. For the modern-day visitor, it is more of an “archaeologist’s site” without the artistic or architectural “wow”. It is the most difficult to reach WHS in Pakistan because of its remote location – but Stanislaw explains how to reach it on public transport.
Site Info
Official Information
- Full Name
- Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro (ID: 138)
- Country
- Pakistan
- Status
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Inscribed 1980
Site history
History of Moenjodaro
- WHS Type
- Cultural
- Criteria
- ii
- iii
Links
- UNESCO
- whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
- whc.unesco.org — whc.unesco.org/
Related Resources
- stdc.gos.pk — Pakistan Tourism
- youtube.com — Good introduction video
- en.wikipedia.org — Wiki on Mohenjo-daro
News Article
- Nov. 20, 2023 arabnews.com — Excavators unearth Kushan era coins at Moenjodaro
- Sept. 1, 2022 theprint.in — Heritage sites in Pakistan’s Sindh province ravaged by floods
- Feb. 18, 2020 tribune.com.pk — What's in a name?: The curious case of Mo(h)(a)(e)njo Daro
- Dec. 15, 2019 tribune.com.pk — Heritage ignored: With no flights, Mohenjo Daro at risk of being forgotten
- July 29, 2015 arynews.tv — 4,600 years old Mohenjo Daro ruins face serious threat from rainwater
- June 15, 2015 pakistantoday.com.pk — Sindh ignores Mohen-jo-Daro encroachments despite UNESCO’s repeated warnings
- Jan. 31, 2014 business-standard.com — Pakistani court stops construction of stage at Mohenjodaro
- Aug. 31, 2010 dailytimes.com.pk — Moenjodaro safe from raging floods
- Aug. 7, 2010 dailytimes.com.pk — Historic Moenjodaro at risk again by floods
- Aug. 5, 2008 dailytimes.com.pk — The ruins of Moenjodaro are on the verge of irreparable destruction after being badly damaged during the recent spell of rains.
Community Information
- Community Category
- Archaeological site: South (East) Asian
Travel Information
Recent Connections
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Indus Basin
“The civilization that built and sustai… -
Foreigner prices
3000rs for foreigners (about 10 USD), 3… -
In Video Games
Civilization VI: Great Bath
Connections of Moenjodaro
- Individual People
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Sir John Marshall
First discovered by the Archaeological survey in 1922. Major excavations commenced 1925 under Marshall revealing a large city built by a civilization contemporaneous with Sumer. His car is in the museum! -
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi
The grounds of Mohenjodaro contain a monument to the "conference" there between The Shah of Iran and Sulfikar Bhutto on March 11 1976. Through to the early 1970s Iran and Pakistan had been close allies but differences began to arise in the mid 1970s - e.g Pakistani support for the Afghan Taliban. The Shah of Iran paid a State visit to Pakistan in March 1976. Moenjodaro is located in the Bhutto family's "home area". Given the use of Persepolis by the Shah to bolster his family's prestige the desire to show the Shah some Pakistani "culture" going back even earlier might have played a part in the choice of location!!
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- Geography
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Indus Basin
“The civilization that built and sustained Mohenjo-daro relied heavily on the waters and fertile lands of the Indus River system.”
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- Trivia
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Former Largest Cities
possibly the largest city around 2400 BC with around 40000 inhabitants -
In Video Games
Civilization VI: Great Bath -
On Banknotes
20 Rupee issued 2005
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- History
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Oldest Buildings
2600BC "Composed of the ruins of several major structures - Great Bath, Great Granary, College Square and Pillared Hall - as well as a number of private homes. The extensive lower city is a complex of private and public houses, wells, shops and commercial buildings. These buildings are laid out along streets intersecting each other at right angles, in a highly orderly form of city planning that also incorporated important systems of sanitation and drainage" (UNESCO) Although the oldest remains date back to 3600BC the majority of the excavated areas are from 2600BCSee www.harappa.com
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Bronze Age
"Once the centre of a powerful civilization, Mohenjo Daro was one of the world's earliest cities — a Bronze Age metropolis boasting flush toilets, as well as a water and waste system to rival modern standards."See www.cbc.ca
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Indus Valley Civilisation
one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation (wiki)
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- Architecture
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Brick architecture
Unbaked brick
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- Damaged
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'Threatened' by Roads
Larkana- Moenjodaro Airport ExpresswaySee www.dawn.com
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- World Heritage Process
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Extensions on Tentative List
Archaeological sites of Mehrgarh, Rehman Dheri and Harappa (PENDING - INCOMPLETE 2008) -
First inscriptions
Pakistan: three inscriptions in 1980, with Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro as the first recorded and with the lowest number
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- Human Activity
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Writing systems
Indus Valley scriptures (one of the oldest in the world) -
Irrigation and drainage
"Once the centre of a powerful civilization, Mohenjo Daro was one of the world's earliest cities — a Bronze Age metropolis boasting flush toilets, as well as a water and waste system to rival modern standards." "(...) the civilization at Mohenjo Daro (...) built an elaborate drainage system, which has been critical during flooding in the past."See www.cbc.ca
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- Timeline
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Built in the 3rd Millennium BC
Built around 2600 BC and abandoned around 1800
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- Science and Technology
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Recorded cultural discoveries
Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay (Indian) 1922
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- Visiting conditions
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Foreigner prices
3000rs for foreigners (about 10 USD), 30 for locals (Nov 2023)
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- 18
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History of the World in 100 objects
Prog 13 "Indus Seal" (found at Harappa) (link)
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News
- arabnews.com 11/20/2023
- Excavators unearth Kushan era coin…
- theprint.in 09/01/2022
- Heritage sites in Pakistan’s Sindh…
- tribune.com.pk 02/18/2020
- What's in a name?: The curious cas…
Recent Visitors
Reserved for members.Community Reviews
Show full reviews
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 …
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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 …
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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.
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