Ancient site · City
Harappa
The first Indus city to be excavated, in the 1920s, which gave the Harappan civilisation its name. Near the old course of the Ravi in Pakistani Punjab, it grew from a village around 3300 BCE into a walled city of perhaps 23,500 people, with brick houses, drains, granary-like halls, workshops and cemeteries.
Seals, standard weights and beads show long-distance trade. Much of its brick was taken for railway ballast in 1857. Late layers include the 'Cemetery H' burials.
- Dates
- c. 3300–1300 BCE; city at its height c. 2600–1900 BCE
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 30.63° N, 72.86° E
How we know
Thousands of short inscriptions survive, but the Indus script is undeciphered, so the city is known from excavation and radiocarbon dates.
Nearby sites
- Kalibangan c. 3500–1750 BCE
- Bhirrana claimed c. 7500 BCE; most scholars: 4th millennium BCE to c. 1900 BCE
- Rakhigarhi village from c. 4600 BCE; city c. 2600–1900 BCE
- Taxila c. 1000 BCE–5th century CE
- Takht-i-Bahi 1st–7th century CE
- Burzahom c. 3000–1000 BCE