WORLD OF SCIENCE
Similar cities
DR. T. V. PADMA
|
Indus architecture is amazingly alike, from one city to another.
|
Architecture requires a great deal of planning and forethought and a highly developed mathematical ability to construct a building that will not cave in and crush its inhabitants.
Indus architecture is amazingly alike, from one city to another. An ancient traveller would have been able to spot any Indus city from miles away, because every city was built on high mounds and had sections surrounded by tall walls. The earliest wall at Harappa is estimated to have been eight feet by 13 feet, and may have taken more than 500 people over three months to build!
Easy design
Entering a large gateway, the ancient visitor would have found it easy to get around, because the broad main streets always ran North-South or East-West. Some archaeologists think this was done to take advantage of the prevailing winds, enabling the city to stay dust-free. Side streets were often arranged crookedly to break the force of the wind.
The visitor might have noticed that although some houses were larger than others, they were similar, with flat roofs, walls and doorways of the same size and design, a central courtyard, a small kitchen with a hearth, a watertight bathroom, a hygienic toilet, and side entrances that faced quiet, tidy side streets instead of the main street (to minimise the dust and noise entering a home). Throughout the civilisation bricks had the same rectangular shape, though they came in different sizes (i.e. the ratio of the length of the sides of each block were always the same: twice as long as wide, and twice as wide as thick). Not all houses and drains were built of fired clay brick. Dholavira, founded between 2650 and 2550 BCE, was situated near the Rann of Kutch, in a dry wasteland, faraway from any river. Here there isn't much mud. So sandstone blocks were used to build houses there and limestone was used for some pillars.
City planning is more than just laying out streets and buildings, of course.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Young World
