Floods in Pakistan have damaged an archaeological site over 4000 years old, according to the site’s caretakers.
Mohenjo Daro is the ruins of an Indus civilization settlement, one of the world’s earliest major cities. It was abandoned at least 3800 years ago, and sand buried it until it was rediscovered in 1922 in what is now Pakistan. It’s a massive site, featuring the remains of gridded streets, a covered sewage system, and standardized bricks throughout. Very large buildings prove that the place was well-populated and had a strong infrastructure for the time.
The site is located near the Indus river, which has flooded in a historic catastrophe with this summer’s heavy monsoons. The river itself hasn’t breached its banks near Mohenjo Daro, but the heavy rains have destroyed earthworks among the ruins.
“Several big walls, which were built nearly 5,000 years ago, have collapsed because of the monsoon rains,” Ahsan Abbasi, the site’s curator, told The Associated Press.
According to Abbasi, the so-called Buddhist stupa, a large structure presumed to be associated with worship and burial and a key feature of the site, is intact, but several outer walls and some broad inner walls separating rooms have collapsed.
Abbasi has lauded the original builders for installing an elaborate drainage system, which has helped protect much of the site. Construction workers under the supervision of archaeologists have begun repairing the earthworks.
The floods in Pakistan have covered more than a quarter of the country’s surface in these heavier-than-usual monsoons, and the Sindh province around the Indus River has taken the brunt of it. Hundreds of thousands of homes are destroyed, with millions displaced. Experts attribute the extreme monsoons to climate change.
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