Pre-Islamic History

Along the river Indus settled some of the earliest civilizations on earth. As early as 7000 BC, the river has provided source of life to greatest travelers and adventurers; from early Harappans to Mohammed Bin Qasim to great Moguls.
The ruins by Indus river at Mehrgarh, Moen-Jo-Daro, Harappa and others have brought to light evidence that an advanced civilization existing even in most ancient times. Like the Nile, the mighty Indus had given birth to a remarkable urban culture that produced elaborate and skillfully crafted artifacts, houses of burnt bricks, and well planned drainage systems, providing us the proof of their advanced and sophisticated styles and systems.

MEHRGARH
Mehrgarh lies between the upland valleys of Baluchistan to the west and the Indus flood plains to the east. From this place came the earliest definite evidence yet of permanent settled agriculture. By 7,000 BC Mehrgarh was already a great village covering around 6 hectares - some 1,000 years before the growth of urbanism in Mesopotamia. By 6,000 BC it had grown to a small town of 12 hectares with the probable population of 3,000. The inhabitants lived in houses built of red mud brick, the same material they used to build the granaries in which they stored their grain.
As well as barley and wheat, dates were also grown and soon, there was to be cotton too. They relied increasingly upon domesticated cattle, including the water buffalo, rather than sheep, goat or deer which at that time were still wild. Society became increasingly sophisticated and while there is no evidence of palaces or temples, the earliest known ritual burial grounds have been found here.
Only a hand full of sites have been discovered, all west of the Indus. It seems that for a while at least, most people in Pakistan chose to continue living as hunter-gatherers or nomadic farmers.

MOEN-JO-DARO

I. Civilization on the west of Indus
Around 3,500 B.C., communities moved from the west side of the Indus to the east. From there onwards permanent settlements began to rise, depending entirely on Indus River System. There is still a mystery that how this settlement evolved into an advanced civilization.
Moen-Jo-Daro is located 20 kilometers south of Larkana in the province of Sindh. At Moen-Jo-Daro are the most impressive remains of the Indus Valley Civilization. The Indus river flows to the east, five kilometers away.

II. The city of Moen-Jo-Daro
The discovery of ruins here was made in 1922 A.D. The whole city is about five kilometers in circumference. It is divided into two distinct parts. There is the hill, the mound, over to the west and the larger lower city down to the east where most of the people lived. The mound, so-called citadel, is man-made, built purposefully higher than the rest of the city, so that the people who lived there, the rulers, could have a clear view out over their domain. Equally, the citizens living down the hill could always be reminded that they were subject to a greater power.

The Lower City
The lower city of Moen-Jo-Daro, where the houses, shops and craft workshops were located, is a fine example of good urban planning. The main streets are about nine meters wide and run at right-angles to each other, dividing the town into roughly rectangular blocks measuring about 360 meters by 240 meters. Between these main streets run a series of lanes, also at right-angles, usually about 1.5 to 3 meters wide. There is therefore a sense of strong administrative control which is reinforced by a number of small, single-roomed buildings on street corners. These could well have been the night watchmen or policemen's post.
The overall quality of domestic accomodation was very high. Fired bricks were used for the construction of the walls. There is evidence that the internal walls were plastered, though the rendering of the external wall is not certain. Most houses were equipped with a flight of stairs which presumably led to either a second storey or at least a flat roof.

The Fall of the city
Moen-Jo-Daro had been the target of floods several times. On at least three occasions, the extent of flooding was so severe that the city was swamped making extensive rebuilding necessary. There was a general decline in building techniques, as indeed in the overall planning.
There are various theories explaining the civilization's wild and sudden downfall. One such theory suggests that wild and war-like Aryans invaded from the north. But modern dating techniques negate such a theory because the city fell into decline wel before the Aryans ever arrived. Another theory suggests that the decline was led by population boom. Houses became more and more overcrowded; increasingly, buildings and even courtyards were sub-divided. Space available for occupation diminished due to the steadily rising levels of the Indus. However, as the entire population even after a boom may only have been about 400,000, this seems improbably. Much more likely is the problem created by recurring and ever-worsening floods. But evidence from a number of sites suggests a far worse problem than this. Geologists suggested that movements in the earth's crust had caused southern Pakistan to become slightly raised, effectively damming the Indus and preventing it from running down to the sea. The Indus would have broken its banks and flooded the surrounding plains, submerging many of the fields. Whatever really happened remains a mystery and from this point on Moen-Jo-Daro remained quite uninhabited.
The civilization lasted, at its height, from about 2,500 B.C. to 1,500 B.C. Much of what is left behind is totally unique, particularly in the fields of architecture and urban planning, setting itself apart from developments further west.

TAXILA
Thirty kilometers north-west of Rawalpindi out along the Grand Trunk Road lies Taxila, one of the most important archaeological sites in the whole of Asia.
Situated startegically on a branch of the Silk Road which linked China to the West, the city flourished both economically and culturally. Taxila reached its greatest heights between the 1st and 5th centuries A.D. Buddhist monuments were erected throughout the Taxila Valley which was transformed into a religious heartland and a destination for pilgrims from as far a field as Central Asia and China. Undoubtedly badly shaken by the arrival of Huns into the area in the mid-5th century A.D., the city plunged into decline when quarrels among the nobility undermined royal power in the 6th and 7th centuries. The remains of the valley can still be visited today where many Buddhists monasteries and temples still stand today.

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