Moen Jo Daro

 Moen Jo Daro 

We were on the road from Lankara to the ancient archaeological city of Moen Jo Daro, a sister city of Harappa that I had visited a few days earlier. En route on the dual carriageway, our side was competely blocked. There were several farmers who had rolled palm tree trunks onto the road. They were threshing rice by hand, banging the sheaves against the trunks. Being a hard, flat surface, it was easy to sweep up the grains and put them in sacks.

We arrived at the entrance to the archaeological site and met out guide. He had been studying and researching the history of this and other sites and had written several books on relatd topics, including Alexander's string of conquests through the Indus valley He crossed the Indus just ten kilometred from th site. Ptomeley was injured near here and went on to become ruler of Egypt.

The site was discovered after the first archaeological dig at Harappa in 1922. Early excavations revealed pottery with similar designs and many seals with the same themes, thus pointing to the two cities to be contemporaneous and linked although separated by over 600 kilometres.

They also seemed to hold in high regard or worship the same animals. Unicorns have been found at both sites. European unicorns had developed from horses slthough Asian unicorns have developed from buffalos.

We came to the start of the site. There was a bust of a king at the entrance. The bust is decorated with trefoil patterns, something like a three leaf clover. This form is repeated through several different civilisations throughout Asia, Mesopotamia and Egypt.  It was widely used but its origin and where it was first used is uncertain.

There are also some inscriptions. From similarities with other written languages in use at the similar time, a few of the forms have been tentatively deciphered. However to date, the languge has not yet been comprehensively decoded.

There are two main sites. This site is the upper city where the court was housed, royalty lived and the major religious centre. The lower city just a kilometre away was where the merchsnts lived and where the markets were located. Two smaller areas include one which was an industrial area housing cotton mills, weving and dyeing areas. A little further away was a low caste residential area. We climbed the steps towards the top of the upper city.

A civilisation had been here on and off for thousands of year. The Indus used to flow nearer to the mountains to the east. Today it flows to the west of the site. The river has changed its course 17 times over the lst 3,500 years. It is thought that intermittent flooding and changes in the course of the river caused the city to be bandoned several times only to be refounded. The British built a bund around the site to protect it from flooding.

In 200AD, Hindu monks built a temple on the highest point of the upper city. It was occupied for 300 years before it in tuen was abandoned. No royal palace has been found at the site. It is assumed that it would have been built on the highest point which is now occupied by the Hindu tmple and that there is a royal palace underneath the temple.

Looking northwards, there are more remains of buildings and a remnant of a city wall.

This is the main crossroads in the centre of the city. Roads headed out towards the four compass points to Irn, then clled Persia, Afghanistan, India and the coast,

Here is the site of the Great Bathhouse. It is thought to be of great religious significance. Of the more than 3.700 Indus civilisation sites excavated, this is the only one with a large bath house. It is assumed that people came here on pilgrimage to bathe in this particular bath.

A double walled well. WQater was pulled up from the well and poured into the channel between the two rows of bricks. It flowed from here into the great bath.

Another view of the temple with the bathhouse in the foreground. The overflow from the baths was through a corbel vaulted tunnel tall enough for a man to walk through. It led out of th city to the old course of the river.

On oval well.

All the streets had drainage with the brick lined channel covered by stones from the hills.

It was a short walk to the lower city, past a stack of mudbricks.

Many of these houses had there own well but this was a communal well.

An original mud brick wall, covered with a roof for preservation.

One of the brick walls. One layer is distinctive as it has no bricks but is made of shards of pottery, bones and pieces of pottery bracelets as if made in a hurry, capped with bricks and probably covered in mud so that the poorly made section was not noticeable.

A well preserved house with multiple rooms and at least two storeys high. It is probably the home of a wealthy merchant.

A view of one of the streets.

The main thoroughfare that also linked the industrial area and the lower caste living area.

An idealised and exaggerated resident and iconic figure of the settlement, called Samara. We had spent more time than planned walking around the city. We had yet to visit the museum so it was a whirlwind walkthrough. I had seen many similar artefacts in Harappa so I wasn't missing out.

If a minibus has 12 seats, its total carrying capacity is more likely to be double with peolpe sitting on the roof and standing on the bumper. The buses were the same. They had a roof rack that stretched the length of the bus with a solid metal sheet wall around it. If all the seats were taken, people would sit with the luggage on the roof. 

One well piled high trailer was so wide that traffic going the other direction had to pull right over and partiall off the road to get by.

Tuktuks carry all sorts...including goats taking a ride rather than walking.

We stopped at the Khuddabad Mosque. it is over 400 years old.

A closer view of the main facade.

Some of the internal decoration.

We stopped again at Manchar Lake. It is Pakistan's largest body of fresh water at over 520 square kilometres. It is fed by meltwater from the mountains. A channel has been cut to connect it to the Indus to take flood water from th Indus although it has its own outlet that eventually joins the Indus further down stream.

The people here make a living from catching fish. However after the 2022 floods and with increasing numbers of people fishing, the catches have been dwindling.

The village and farm land is protected by a large bund. The village was inundated by the 2022 floods and new houses have been built on the landward side of the bund.

The land side of the bund is covered with stone to prevent erosion by waves.

The stones of the bund are also used as a place to dry out piles of dung to be used as fuel.

A brick kiln, adding to the pollution.

We arrived in Sehwan and stopped at the fort. It was allegedly built by Alexander the Great but here is no documented proof to substantiate the claim. It looks in remarkably good condition because the Endowment Trust Fund has funded substantial reconstruction of the entry gates and adjoining walls. The apporach to the main gate.

The main gate itself.

Looking back at the second gate from the inside of the fort.

A man playing music and singing for passersby. 

A view of one of the internal reconstructed walls. We walked through a crowded bazaar to...

...the tomb of Lal Shah Beiz Qalandar. He was a revered Sufi poet. He is respected by Shia, Sunni and Hindu adherrents. His tomb is the most visited in Pakistan. Consequently, there is a heavy police presence, everyone is searched and there is a long iron fenced maze to control entering crowds.

His tomb inside the main chamber.

A view into the next square.

A view of the walls and decorations with lots of lights and mirrors.

Another courtyard.

The drums set up for the tilmuz, a musical rendition to which people can dance.

Looking back from th inner courtyard to the main dome covered tomb.

The flagpole, which seems to be so popular in southern Punjab and Sindh.

Some of the musicians...

...playing their horns as the drums beat out a rhthym with people dancing behind...

...and out of sight, people worked themselves up into a frenzy. some collapsing and some seeming to have a fit. Maktouns were on hand to ensure that that were thrashing about uncontrolably, overwhelmed with religiour fervour didn't injure themselves or others.

At the end of the performance, we went back to the hotel. The menus aren't particulrly different from each other. There was yoghurt, rice and chipati with every meal. The choice was whether it was going to be fish, beef, mutton or chicken. Beef was often on the menu but wasn't available. The fish types are unfamiliar with small bones everywhere so picking out the flesh from the bones is tiresome.

That evening there was something else on the menu that was a local delicacy. That seals it every time for me.  It was a dessert and I don't have a sweet tooth and can often miss out that course. But it was local so I had to have it. It was a local version of a knickerbocker glory.