Moenjodaro; The City of Dead

The word “Moenjodaro” means “The City of Dead”. This ancient city was discovered in 1922 by a British archaeologist Sir John Marshal. It belonged to the great Indus valley civilization which came into existence about 5000 years ago in the region irrigated by river Indus and it's tributaries, the region is now called Pakistan.

Moenjodaro was a well-built and developed city with almost all the streets 33 feet wide, a proper system of sanitation and well-planned market places. Its script has not been deciphered. It is believed that most of the people of this city worshiped idols because numerous idols were found during the excavation. Some of these idols were wearing cotton clothes which proves that the people of dead city were well versed in weaving cotton. They had trade links with far off places and imported Copper, Silver, Bronze and Tin from Central Asia, Afghanistan and Kharasan as the Indus valley itself didn't produce these metals. These metals were then used to prepare weapons, jewelry and other items of daily use. Probably the use of iron was not known to the people of ancient city. Their attitude towards the battle field shows that they were very peace loving. As a result the invaders from Central Asia conquered their land and many of the aborigines fled to other parts of Sub-continent.

Moenjodaro was situated at the bank of river Indus and it is believed that floods caused its destruction about 2500 years ago. Today the city is visited by tourists and archaeologists from all over the world. It is located in District Larkana at a distance of about 28 km from Larakana and 107 km from sukkur. It lies on 27o 19' 30.36" North latitude and 68o 08' 08.77" East longitutide at an elevation of about 164 ft from sea level. The articles from the ancient cities can be seen in all the major museums of Pakistan. The government of Pakistan is striving to preserve this national asset. It seems that in addition to the river Indus there was another large river which parallel and west of the Indus in the third and fourth millennium B.C. This was the ancient Ghaggra-Hakra River or Sarasvati of the Rig Veda. Its lost banks are slowly being laid out by researchers. Along its bed, a whole new set of ancient towns and cities have been discovered.