Mohenjo-daro
Ancient city of the Indus Valley Civilisation
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Where it is
Coordinates: 27°19′44″N 68°08′20″E (27.3290, 68.1390) · Open in OpenStreetMap
Coordinates and connected clubs: the infobox of Wikipedia: Mohenjo-daro (CC BY-SA 4.0). Map: drawn by Codexery from OpenStreetMap tiles.
Mohenjo-daro is an archaeological site in the Larkana District of Sindh, Pakistan. Built around 2500 BC, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and one of the world's earliest major cities, contemporaneous with the civilisations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Minoa, and Norte Chico. With an estimated population of at least 40,000 people, it prospered for several centuries but was abandoned by an unspecified date. The site was rediscovered in the 1920s and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.
Background
The city's original name is unknown. Based on a seal analysis, Iravatham Mahadevan speculates it could have been Kukkuṭārma ('the city of the cockerel'). Cock-fighting may have had ritual significance.
Mohenjo-daro may have been a point of diffusion for the domesticated chicken. The modern name means 'Mound of the Dead' in Sindhi. The site lies on a Pleistocene ridge off the right bank of the lower Indus River, about 28 km from Larkana.
Did You Know?
- The circular brick well design used at Mohenjo-daro may be an invention of the Indus civilisation, with no evidence of it from Mesopotamia or Egypt at the time.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Mohenjo-daro (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the , each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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