Quickbytes Explanation
Planned Cities of the Indus Valley
Question
What feature of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro shows careful city planning?
Reveal Answer
Answer
Their organized street layouts and standardized construction.
Quick Explanation
Indus cities show evidence of careful planning through organized street networks, standardized bricks, neighborhood layouts, wells, drains, and large public structures. Mohenjo-Daro's streets often intersected at right angles, while other cities adapted planning to their own landscapes. The similarities suggest strong shared building traditions, but the cities were not exact copies of one another.
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Orderly Urban Layouts
One of the most impressive features of the Indus civilization is the organization of its cities. At Mohenjo-Daro, major streets and lanes were laid out in a highly regular pattern, often meeting at or near right angles.
Standardized Construction
Builders frequently used bricks made in consistent proportions. Standardization made construction more predictable and appears across widely separated sites, suggesting shared technical traditions and systems of measurement.
Different Parts of the City
Many Indus settlements had raised sectors containing major public or ceremonial buildings as well as lower residential areas. Older scholarship often called the raised sector a citadel, although its exact political function is not always known.
Planning for Water
Wells, bathing areas, drains, reservoirs, and other water-management features were integrated into urban neighborhoods. At Mohenjo-Daro, the Great Bath is one of the most famous examples of large-scale waterproof brick construction.
Not a Single City Blueprint
Indus cities shared important planning ideas, but each site responded to its own geography and history. Dholavira, for example, used local stone as well as brick and had a distinctive system of large water reservoirs. It is therefore better to think of a shared urban tradition than one rigid plan copied everywhere.