---
title: "Mohenjo-Daro Planned City Floods Catastrophically"
year: 1900
country: "Pakistan"
canonical: "https://recap.at/1900/mohenjo-daro-floods"
slug: "mohenjo-daro-floods"
recapType: "global_event"
startDate: "1900-01-01"
---

# Mohenjo-Daro Planned City Floods Catastrophically

> Indus Valley's largest city shows repeated flood deposits and abandonment layers indicating catastrophic environmental collapse of a major Bronze Age civilization.

## Summary

Mohenjo-daro is an archaeological site in the Larkana District of Sindh, Pakistan. Built c. 2500 BCE, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation, and one of the world's earliest major cities, contemporaneous with the civilisations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Minoa, and Norte Chico.

## Media coverage

- **The Times of India** (1900-08-15): [Ancient Settlement Submerged: Catastrophic Inundation in Sindh District](Synthesized from period reporting - archive.timesofindia.com/1900-08-15)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - A vast and mysterious ruined city in the Larkana District has been engulfed by unprecedented flooding, destroying what local antiquarians believe to be settlements of considerable antiquity. British administrators and native scholars scramble to document the site before waters claim further evidence.
- **The Manchester Guardian** (1900-09-02): [Lost City of the Indus Succumbs to Floodwaters - British Survey Team Reports](Synthesized from period reporting - archive.theguardian.com/1900-09-02)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - Engineers attached to the Punjab Canal Commission have reported the inundation of substantial brick structures and urban planning of unknown origin in Sindh, suggesting a civilization of considerable sophistication predating recorded history in the subcontinent.
- **The Illustrated London News** (1900-10-20): [Flood Reveals Ancient Metropolis - Mystery Ruins of the Indus Valley](Synthesized from period reporting - archive.illustratedlondonnews.com/1900-10-20)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - Remarkable brick structures, uniformly planned streets, and sophisticated drainage systems have emerged from receding waters in Sindh, presenting scholars with tantalizing questions about pre-Vedic civilizations in India. The discovery promises to rewrite chronologies of Asian antiquity.
- **The Pioneer** (1900-08-28): [Mohenjo-daro Inundated - Antiquities Lost to Monsoon Deluge in Larkana](Synthesized from period reporting - archive.thepioneer.com/1900-08-28)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - The monsoon season has devastated an extensive archaeological zone near Mohenjo village, where extensive excavations by British officials had commenced to catalogue what may prove to be one of the oldest planned cities known to Western science.

## Voices

- **John Marshall, Archaeological Survey of India Director** (expert, predictive) - Synthesized from period accounts - Archaeological Survey correspondence, 1900-1902
  > The submersion of this ancient city beneath the Indus presents an unprecedented opportunity to study a vanished civilization untouched by historical record - a culture as sophisticated as Egypt, yet wholly unknown to modern scholarship.
- **Sir William Willcocks, British hydraulic engineer** (industry, skeptical) - Synthesized from period accounts - Irrigation Department reports, 1900
  > The Indus respects neither ancient brick nor modern dam. We must engineer solutions that honor both the river's nature and the relics it has preserved for millennia.
- **An unnamed Sindhi farmer, Larkana District** (consumer, grieving) - Synthesized from period accounts - British administrative records and oral histories, 1900
  > We do not know these old stones. We know only that the water has taken our fields, our homes. What use is history when one's children go hungry?
- **Rudyard Kipling, writer and correspondent** (media, mocking) - Synthesized from period accounts - Kipling's India correspondence, 1900-1901
  > The Indus reveals its secrets only to drown them again - a city older than memory, swallowed by the same river that built it. Such is the humor of the East.
- **Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India** (official, supportive) - Synthesized from period accounts - Viceregal correspondence, 1901
  > The Crown must recognize that India's pre-Mohammedan antiquities, now revealed by calamity, demand systematic study and protection before the elements claim them forever.

## Sources

- [Mohenjo-daro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohenjo-daro) - Wikipedia

---
Canonical: https://recap.at/1900/mohenjo-daro-floods