Harappan Architecture

Harappan architecture is the building tradition of the Indus Valley Civilisation, which reached its mature phase across the Indus river system in present day Pakistan and northwest India from about 2600 to 1900 BCE. Its cities were laid out on a highly uniform grid, divided into a raised citadel and a lower town, with houses built of baked brick opening onto internal courtyards and narrow lanes rather than directly onto the street. The civilisation is especially notable for what is regarded as the world's earliest known urban sanitation system, with covered drains running along the streets and wells providing water to individual houses, and for large public works such as the Great Bath at Mohenjo daro and substantial granaries and warehouses. The uniformity of house size and the presence of drainage and water access across most dwellings point to a comparatively low concentration of wealth for a Bronze Age urban civilisation.