Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c12.85

c12.85

The mounds which represent the city of Mohenjo-daro today cover a square mile, and surface indications of some of the main streets can be traced and have been confirmed by excavation, which has also revealed the details of the smaller streets and lanes in some areas. Combining these pieces of evidence, the published plan suggests that the basic lay-out was that of a gridiron of main streets running north-south and east-west, dividing the area into blocks of roughly equal size and approximately rectangular, 800 feet east-to-west and 1200 feet north-to-south. The existence of six and probably seven of these blocks has been proved by excavation, as have two main streets at right angles (East Street and First Street), and part of a third to the east of and parallel with First Street. The denudation of the edges of the mounds already mentioned renders the perimeter of the city uncertain in outline and exact position, but if the lay-out indicated by the central street-plan was continued symmetrically, we would have a square city a mile across comprising twelve major building blocks in three rows of four, east to west. The central western block, on this reconstructed lay-out, would be the Citadel, occupying a position commensurate with the distinction implied by its function. The main streets, unpaved, seem to have been up to 30 feet wide, and within the main blocks was an irregular network of small roads, lanes, and alleys roughly following the general lines of the lay-out and dividing the blocks into individual houses. At Harappā it was impossible to determine any details of