The Indus Valley (or Harappan) civilization was contemporaneous with Mesopotamia and Egypt, but geographically far larger than either. Its two best-known cities — Mohenjo-daro and Harappa — display remarkably orderly urban planning: streets laid out on rectangular grids, standardized brick dimensions, covered drains, neighbourhood wells, and public bathing complexes.

Perhaps the most striking feature, given the surviving evidence, is the absence of grand temples, palace complexes, or ostentatious royal monuments. Where other ancient civilizations made power shout through architecture, the Indus seal speaks instead through balanced proportions, shared standards, and collective infrastructure. This may point to a very different model of political organisation.

They left behind a short, sign-based writing system — still undeciphered. We therefore have no king lists, no war narratives, no surviving literature. Around 1900 BCE, likely under the pressures of climate change and shifting river courses, the great cities were gradually abandoned.