Each city was composed of a series of walled enclosures on mounds, oriented in different directions.

Harappa and Mohanjodaro both have a high

oblong mound on the west and extensive mounds to the north, south and east.
At Mohanjodaro, the western mounds are higher than the others; these mounds had public buildings, private houses, market areas and industrial
workshops.

The orientation of Indus cities is not simply coincidental but rooted in religious beliefs and highly developed astronomy.

The mound oriented along East - West axis, is believed to be the oldest part of the ancient city that came up on top of an early village settlement.

The movement of sun, moon and stars played a decisive role in giving the various settlements and various structures a particular orientation.

The architects during the early as well as the later phase may also have taken their clues from the sun movement and also complex sighting of rising
star and constellations.
Although the Indus planners used the cardinal directions for the layout of houses, streets and large public buildings, they were not bogged by these
parameters and the actual layout of streets and lanes is quite an irregular net pattern. The walls of the houses were built several times in different
angles, at variance with the original.
Even the city fortifications were often made curvilinear. Archaeologists have discovered massive foundations of decayed mud brick walls and traces of large brick
entrance gates near the edges of the now dilapidated mounds of Mohanjodaro and Harappa ..
Each major mound was surrounded by a massive mud brick wall, with brick gateways and bastions located at intervals along each site.

Surrounded by a mud brick wall, this mound had a major gateway on its south wall at the center of a large curve that extends into the plain presumably
encompassing a large open space. At the gateway itself, the mud brick city wall is over 9 meters wide and with additional bastions making it up to 11
meters wide.
The gate itself is made from baked bricks with one meter thick walls bonded with mud brick city wall. The gate opening is 2.~ meter wide, permitting
just one cart to pass at a time.
The top of the gate was probably covered and had a check post or watch tower.
Outside of the city wall, some 30 meters south of the gateway is a small mound with houses, drains, bathing platforms etc.
This cluster of houses may represent a temporary rest stopover for travelers passing by the city at odd hours.
The second major gateway at one of the eastern mound is more intricate.
The actual gateway opening is about 2.5 meters wide only, but gate pylons and attached cells cover an area 25 meters wide and 15 meters deep. The
other mound at Harappa perhaps had their own fortifications and separate gates.
~
The western citadel mound, the highest habitation area at Mohanjodaro is 12.meters high from the nearby northern planes,
In contrast to the high citadel mound, the so called lower town to the east comprises of low mounds spread over about 80 hectares.
These mounds are divided into major blocks by four major North - South streets and four similar East - West streets in transverse direction with several smaller streets
and lanes.

BUILDING MATERIALS

Houses built by people from different strata of society, usually exhibit variation in the raw materials used, the style of construction, the brick laying techniques and
binding materials. In the Indus cities, there is a remarkable uniformity in the selection of materials and construction techniques.

Since most of the Indus settlements were in the alluvial planes, the most common building material, naturally were mud bricks and burnt bricks, wood and reeds.
An average size of the mud brick and baked brick (7 x 14 x 28 cm) was used in house construction, whereas a different size (10 x 20 x 40 cm) of brick was adopted for
construction of city walls. It would be pertinent to note that both types of brick had the ratio of 1 : 2 : 4 . This standardization of dimension for the building material was
probably because of the emergence of a class of brick makers, whose craft tradition spread to all of the different settlements and not because of any state decree or central
building codes.
Mud bricks, baked bricks or stones were used for the foundations or the walls of the houses; the doors and windows were made with wood.
The floors of a house were generally rammed earth that was often covered with clean sand. Bathing areas and drains were made of baked bricks.
Some rooms were paved with terra cotta cakes.
Very few fragments of roof have been discovered, but they were probably made of wooden beams covered with reeds and compacted clay. The wooden components of
the Indus houses would have been made by different sets of artisans, carpenters, who used altogether different techniques and tools.
Some of the largest public buildings at Mohanjodaro and Harappa appear to have been made entirely of wood.
Dressed stone blocks and architectural components represent a major craft associated with architecture of these cities. Incorporating different qualities of materials and
variations of style, these architectural crafts helped create a unique living environment.
Enclosed within massive city walls, many different social and economic classes were able to live in close proximity and still
maintain their status and identity.

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
Most of the Indus architecture can be grouped into three categories with some variations resulting from rebuildinq and modifying original structures.
o Private Houses
o Housing Complexes
o Public Buildings
PRIVATE HOUSES
o The first category are private houses with rooms arranged around a central courtyard that offered privacy from the public outside.
o Doorways and windows opened onto the side lanes.
o The view into the house was blocked by' a wall maintaining the privacy of the inhabitants.
o Several room were situated around the courtyard; stairs led up to the roof or second storey from one room or the courtyard.
o Many houses were at least two storey high.
o On an average, walls were 70 cm thick and ceilings probably were over three meters high.
o The doors were made with wooden frames, and a brick socket set in the threshold served as a door pivot.
o Some of the door- frames were painted and possibly carved with simple ornamentation.
o A hole at the base of the door-frame may have allowed a rope to secure or lock the door.
o Windows situated on both first -and second stories had shutters with lattice work, grills above and below the shutters.
o This was to facilitate the penetration of light and air without sacrificing privacy.
o A few examples of carved marble lattice work set into the red fired brick walls have been discovered in few houses of Mohanjodaro and Harappa.

HOUSING COMPLEXES

Buildings in the second category include large houses surrounded by smaller units (Visual-3 & 4).
Complex passage ways, gave access to the interior rooms and numerous rebuilding phases indicate repeated reorganization of spaces.

Outer units may have been houses of relatives or service groups attached to the parent house.
Generally entrances were provided to the premises from the lanes only.
Windows were provided at a considerable height from road/floor level.
Some cases of windows with stone Jali protection have also come to light.
Stairs were incorporated to provide access to the upper floors.
Some examples of wooden stairs have been discovered.
Most of the houses were provided with a courtyard but provision of water well was restricted to only a few courtyards.
In Harappa, very few wells have been found. It is believed that drinking water came from the nearby river.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS
The third category of structures includes large public structures that have many access routes or provide a thorough fare from one area of the site to another.

Markets or public meetings may have been held in large open courtyards while other buildings may have had specific administrative or religious functions.
Groups of houses or public buildings were close together with shared walls and formed larger blocks that were bordered by wide streets.

Most houses or groups of houses had private bathing areas and latrines as well as private wells.

Generally private bathrooms were provided in the individual houses.

The upper stories were constructed in lighter materials like timber, compacted earth on flat planks resting on economically designed timber beams.
Openings were spanned by wooden lintels as the technique of load bearing arch construction 'was alien to them.
A few examples of corbelling have also come to light.
But what makes Indus Valley Civilization famous are not the houses or groups of houses but well integrated system of water supply and sanitation; public baths
and latrines; streets and drainage system, great public bathing places and granaries.
Some private wells in the courtyards & toilets adjacent to bathrooms have also been discovered.
As far as drainage system is concerned, none of the ancient civilizations had such an efficient drainage system as found in Indus Valley civilization.
The drains were provided on both sides of the streets.
All the drains of various lanes and streets were connected to a main drain.
Lime gypsum mortar was used to bind the baked bricks for the drains.
Drains were covered with bricks.
Drains intersected at properly designed junctions with a deeper pit for periodic removal of deposited solid wastes carried by water through the drains.

GREAT BATH & GRANARY

Among the excavations, a complete bathing establishment has been discovered, which probably is the most important public place and was used for religious
purposes.

This great bath (Visual-7 &8) is 11.88 m long, 7.01 m wide and 2.43 m deep.
Stairs are provided at both ends up to the bottom of the bath.
The floor of the bath is made of burnt bricks.
A well, in a room, near the great bath has been found, which was probably the source of water for filling this public bath.
Some small rooms with a front verandah exist around the great bath, which were supposed to be used as changing rooms and bath rooms
The biggest building at Mohanjodaro was a food store (Granary) 47.5 m long & 15.2 m wide.
Located on the western edge of the mound at South- West corner of the great bath at Mohanjodaro, the huge building appears to have been constructed before the great
bath.

The exit drain of the great bath cuts across the North - East corner of the foundation of this structure (Visual-9).

The foundation was divided into 27 squares and rectangular blocks by narrow passage ways, two running East -West and eight running North-South.

Built on top of a tapered brick platform, the building had a solid brick foundation that extended for about 49 meters in East - West and 27 meters in the North South
direction.
Some of these blocks had square sockets for holding wooden beams or pillars.
It can thus, be deduced that the entire superstructure was made of timber.