Indus+Valley+Civilization

For more see, World History I 21.

from Kahn Academy
 * The Indus River Valley (or Harappan) civilization lasted for 2,000 years
 * It extended from what is today northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India.

The survival of the Indus Valley civilizations was directly linked to the geography of the land.
 * India's geography is harsh and contains many different extremes like deserts, mountains, forests, and jungles.
 * Although the difficult geographical conditions caused problems in the Indus Valley, it also aided in its development.
 * The Himalaya Mountain range served as a source of protection from nomadic raids and military invasions in from the north, while other mountain ranges provided similar protection in the west and east.
 * The water ways of the Indus Valley served as an excellent resource for trade and commerce with other civilizations.
 * Pictographic seals found in both the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia show the two civilizations had contact through trade.

The Indus Valley contained mathematically planned cities that originated in the south and moved north.
 * Some of these cities contained as many as 30,000 inhabitants and were almost three miles in diameter.
 * The major cities had granaries, citadels, and even written languages. In the city of Mohenjodaro, a mile-long canal was built to connect the city to the sea.

The ancient civilization was primarily an agrarian based society growing many grains such as barley and wheat.
 * The people also fished and possessed domesticated animals such as sheep, pigs, zebus (a type of cow), and water buffalo.

The architecture found in the ancient cities usually consisted of single or double storied buildings made of back bricks with flat roofs.
 * Many of the houses had courtyards with wells and some even had bathrooms with indoor toilets. [|[1]]