2600–1900 BCE · Asia · Trade
Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and related settlements formed a vast ancient urban network, with carefully planned streets, drainage, standardized weights and long-distance exchange across South Asia and the Persian Gulf.
Atlas dossier · Ancient WorldFree device narration · synchronized English captions · transcript available
Why it matters
A visual presentation accompanying this entry. Read each image’s attribution to distinguish archival records, later depictions and reconstructions.
The Great Bath and surrounding ruins at Mohenjo-daro, photographed in 2014. Visible remains include conservation work.
Mohenjo-daro.jpg — Saqib Qayyum; CC BY-SA 3.0; via Wikimedia Commons repository. Resized, cropped and converted to WebP for Atlas display.
Source and reuse terms ↗ · Read the licence ↗Interpretation note
This dossier distinguishes the event’s basic chronology from later arguments about meaning, responsibility and legacy. When comparing religious, national, Indigenous or scholarly interpretations, consult the primary and institutional sources above alongside peer-reviewed historical work.
Elsewhere in the world
3100–1070 BCE · AfricaAncient Egypt: Nile kingdoms and the New KingdomFor more than two millennia, Nile Valley kingdoms developed durable systems of agriculture, writing, taxation, religion, craft and state power. The New Kingdom extended Egyptian rule into Nubia and the eastern Mediterranean while leaving a vast architectural and textual record.
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1000 BCE–350 CE · AfricaKush and Nubian kingdomsNubian kingdoms south of Egypt developed powerful states, monumental cities and far-reaching trade; Kushite rulers governed Egypt as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, while the Meroitic kingdom remained a major Nile Valley power into the early centuries CE.