Q.Describe some of the distinctive features of Mohenjodaro.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Mohenjodaro, the best-known Harappan city, was distinguished by its meticulous urban planning, advanced drainage systems, and the Great Bath — a unique public structure that reflects the sophistication of Indus Valley civilisation.
Mohenjodaro, located in present-day Sindh, Pakistan, is the most extensively excavated and best-preserved city of the Harappan civilisation (c. 2600–1900 BCE). Its distinctive features reveal a society that valued order, hygiene, and communal life — long before such concepts became common elsewhere.
The city was built on a deliberate grid pattern. Streets ran roughly north-south and east-west, intersecting at right angles, dividing the city into rectangular blocks. This layout is not accidental — it suggests a central authority that planned and regulated construction. Houses were made of baked bricks of a standardised size (roughly 1:2:4 ratio), which made walls strong and uniform. The use of baked bricks itself is remarkable, as many contemporary civilisations used sun-dried mud bricks.
The standardised brick size across Harappan cities — from Mohenjodaro to Harappa to Dholavira — hints at a shared system of measurement and possibly a common administrative framework.
The most iconic structure at Mohenjodaro is the Great Bath. This is a large, brick-lined tank, about 12 metres long, 7 metres wide, and 2.4 metres deep, made watertight with a layer of natural tar. Steps led down into it from both ends, and it was surrounded by a colonnade and rooms. The Great Bath was likely used for ritual bathing — a practice that later became central to Indian religious life. Its careful construction and prominent location in the citadel (the raised western part of the city) suggest it held great importance.
Equally impressive is the drainage system. Almost every house in Mohenjodaro had a bathroom and a toilet, with wastewater flowing into covered drains that ran along the main streets. These drains were built with bricks and covered with stone slabs or bricks, and they had inspection holes at regular intervals for cleaning. This is arguably the most advanced urban sanitation system in the ancient world — no other contemporary civilisation, not even Mesopotamia, had such a widespread and well-maintained network.
The Harappan drainage system was not just functional — it was a civic priority. The fact that drains were regularly cleaned and maintained shows that public health was a collective concern, not an afterthought.
The city was divided into two main parts: the citadel (a raised, walled area on a mound to the west) and the lower town (to the east). The citadel contained public buildings — the Great Bath, a large granary (a structure with rows of brick platforms for storing grain), and what may have been an assembly hall or a college of priests. The lower town was the residential area, with houses of varying sizes — some large with multiple rooms and courtyards, others small and cramped. This suggests social hierarchy, though not as extreme as in later civilisations.
Houses typically had a central courtyard, around which rooms were arranged. Most had a private well — Mohenjodaro had over 700 wells, an extraordinary number for a single ancient city. This meant that every household had easy access to fresh water, a luxury unknown in most other ancient cities. …
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