Harappan civilization is commonly known as the Indus Valley civilization. Harappa was one of the major urban centers of this ancient civilization. Harappa was first excavated in the early 20th century by archaeologists, and the discoveries made there provided much of the initial understanding of this ancient civilization.
The Indus Valley story began in the Neolithic epoch, with minor communities such as Mehrgarh in modern-day Balochistan, Pakistan. Over generations, these little Neolithic settlements evolved into what would become known as Early Harappan cultures. By roughly 2600 BCE, the civilization had reached its mature stage, known as the Mature Harappan Period.
The towns in the Indus Valley were nothing short of architectural marvels. This civilization’s people used amazing urban planning to build their cities. They built baked brick structures and intricate drainage systems to remove wastewater from cities, a technique that many modern cities continue to deal with today.
Furthermore, the cities had well-organized water supply systems, public bathhouses, and clusters of non-residential buildings. This suggests that they had a well-organized administration and, most likely, a system of governance for planning and managing such cities. Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, two of the greatest towns, could have housed between 30,000 and 60,000 people each, and estimates suggest that the entire civilization had a population of one to five million people at its peak.