Mohenjo-daro(Urdu موئن جودڑو, Sindhi موئن جو دڙو; literally "hill of the dead") is a city of the Indus Valley Civilization. It is the largest ancient city of the Indus Valley and one of the first cities in the history of South Asia, contemporary with the civilization of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia.

Mohenjo-Daro arose around 2600 BC. e. and was abandoned some nine hundred years later. It is believed that during its heyday, the city was the administrative center of the Indus Valley Civilization and one of the most developed cities in South Asia. According to some versions, its inhabitants were exterminated during the Aryan invasion.

The city (or "hill of the dead") was discovered in 1922 by Indian archaeologist Rakhal Banarji. And for the first time it was seriously studied in the 1930s by the expedition of the British archaeologist John Marshall, who did not fail to note the “identity” of the finds in Mohenjo-Daro with those discovered in Harappa, 400 km upstream of the Indus. The last major excavations of Mohenjo-Daro were carried out by an American expedition in 1964-1965, but were abandoned due to erosion damage to the excavated structures.

In earlier studies, the “hill of the dead” was described as a border fortress of the Mesopotamian civilization. Mohenjo-Daro stands out among other centers of the Indus civilization with an almost ideal layout, the use of baked brick as the main building material, as well as the presence of complex irrigation and religious structures. The ancient city occupied an area of about 259 hectares and was a network of blocks (the oldest example of such a layout), separated by wide streets with a developed drainage system, which were divided into smaller ones. Among other buildings, noteworthy are the granary, the “large pool” for ritual ablutions with an area of 83 sq. m. and an elevated “citadel” (apparently intended for protection against floods). In its heyday, the population ranged from 30,000 to 40,000 people. The width of the streets in the city reached 10 m. In Mohenjo-Daro, perhaps the first public toilets known to archaeologists were discovered, as well as a city sewerage system. Part of the territory of the lower city, where commoners settled, was eventually flooded by the Indus and therefore remains unexplored. Over 4,500 years, the water (soil) level has risen by 7 meters.

To this day, many archaeologists are concerned about the mystery of the death of the city of Mohenjo-Daro 4,500 years ago. The ruins of the buildings did not contain numerous corpses of people and animals, as well as fragments of weapons and traces of destruction. The only obvious fact was that the disaster occurred suddenly and did not last long. The decline of culture is a slow process, no traces of the flood were found. Moreover, there is indisputable data indicating massive fires. The epidemic does not strike people calmly walking along the streets or doing business, suddenly and simultaneously. This is exactly what happened - this is confirmed by the location of the skeletons. Paleontological studies also reject the epidemic hypothesis. With good reason, one can also reject the version of a sudden attack by the conquerors; none of the discovered skeletons contain traces left by bladed weapons.

A very unusual version was expressed by the Englishman D. Davenport and the Italian E. Vincenti. They claim that Mohenjo-Daro survived the fate of Hiroshima. The authors provide the following arguments in favor of their hypothesis. Among the ruins there are scattered pieces of baked clay and green glass (whole layers!). In all likelihood, the sand and clay first melted under the influence of high temperature and then instantly hardened. The same layers of green glass appear in the desert of Nevada (USA) every time after a nuclear explosion. Analysis of the samples carried out at the University of Rome and in the laboratory of the Italian National Research Council showed that melting occurred at a temperature of 1400-1500 degrees. Such a temperature in those days could be obtained in the forge of a metallurgical workshop, but not in a vast open area

If you carefully examine the destroyed buildings, you get the impression that a clear area is outlined - the epicenter, in which all the buildings were swept away by some kind of squall. From the center to the periphery, the destruction gradually decreases. The outlying buildings are the most preserved. In a word, the picture is reminiscent of the consequences of the atomic explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Is it conceivable to assume that the mysterious conquerors of the Indus River valley possessed atomic energy?" Such an assumption seems incredible and categorically contradicts the ideas of modern historical science. However, the Indian epic "Mahabharata" speaks of a certain "explosion" that caused "a blinding light, fire without smoke" , while “the water began to boil, and the fish were charred” - What is this - just a metaphor? D. Davenport believes that it is based on real events.

In 1922, on one of the islands of the Indus River in Pakistan, archaeologists discovered the ruins of an ancient city under a layer of sand. They called this place Mohenjo-daro, which means "Hill of the Dead" in the local language.

It is believed that the city arose around 2600 BC and existed for about 900 years. It is believed that during its heyday it was the center of the Indus Valley Civilization and one of the most developed cities in South Asia. From 50 to 80 thousand people lived in it. Excavations in this area continued until 1980. Salty groundwater began to flood the area and corrode the burnt bricks of the surviving building fragments. And then, by decision of UNESCO, the excavations were mothballed. So far we have managed to excavate about a tenth of the city.

What did Mohenjo-Daro look like almost four thousand years ago? Houses of the same type were located literally along a line. In the center of the house-building there was a courtyard, and around it there were 4-6 living rooms, a kitchen and a room for ablution. The preserved stairwells in some houses suggest that two-story houses were also built. The main streets were very wide. Some walked strictly from north to south, others from west to east.

There were ditches flowing through the streets, from which water was supplied to some houses. There were also wells. Each house was connected to a sewer system. Sewage was carried out of the city through underground pipes made of baked bricks. For the first time, perhaps, archaeologists have discovered ancient public toilets here. Among other buildings, noteworthy are the granary, a pool for general ritual ablutions with an area of 83 square meters, and a “citadel” on a hill - apparently to save the townspeople from floods. There were also inscriptions on the stone, which, however, have not yet been deciphered.

Catastrophe

What happened to this city and its inhabitants? In fact, Mohenjo Daro ceased to exist at once. There is plenty of evidence of this. The skeletons of thirteen adults and one child were found in one of the houses. The people were not killed or robbed; before their deaths, they sat and ate something from bowls. Others simply walked the streets. Their death was sudden. In some ways it was reminiscent of the deaths of people in Pompeii.

Archaeologists had to discard one after another version of the death of the city and its inhabitants. One of these versions is that the city was suddenly captured by the enemy and burned. But the excavations did not find any weapons or traces of the battle. There are quite a lot of skeletons, but all these people did not die as a result of the struggle. On the other hand, there are clearly not enough skeletons for such a large city. It seems that most of the inhabitants left Mohenjo-Daro even before the disaster. How could this happen? Complete mysteries...

“I worked on excavations at Mohenjo-Daro for four whole years,” recalled Chinese archaeologist Jeremy Sen. — The main version that I heard before arriving there is that in 1528 BC this city was destroyed by an explosion of monstrous force. All our finds confirmed this assumption... We came across “groups of skeletons” everywhere - at the time of the death of the city, people were clearly taken by surprise. Analysis of the remains showed an amazing thing: the death of thousands of residents of Mohenjo-Daro occurred... from a sharp increase in radiation levels.

The walls of the houses were melted, and among the rubble we found layers of green glass. This is the kind of glass that was seen after nuclear tests at the test site in the Nevada desert, when the sand melted. Both the location of the corpses and the nature of the destruction in Mohenjo-Daro were reminiscent of... the events of August 1945 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki... Both I and many members of that expedition concluded: there is a possibility that Mohenjo-Daro became the first city in the history of the Earth to be subjected to nuclear bombing .

Molten layer

A similar point of view is shared by the English archaeologist D. Davenport and the Italian researcher E. Vincenti. Analysis of samples brought from the banks of the Indus showed that the melting of soil and brick occurred at a temperature of 1400-1500°C. Such a temperature in those days could only be obtained in a forge, but not in a vast open area.

What do the holy books say?

So it was a nuclear explosion. But was this possible four thousand years ago? However, let's not rush. Let us turn to the ancient Indian epic “Mahabharata”. This is what happens when the mysterious weapon of the Pashupati gods is used:

“...the earth shook under our feet and began to shake along with the trees. The river stirred, even the great seas were agitated, the mountains cracked, the winds rose. The fire dimmed, the radiant sun eclipsed...

White hot smoke, which was a thousand times brighter than the sun, rose in endless brilliance and burned the city to the ground. The water was boiling... horses and war chariots were burned in the thousands... the corpses of those who fell were mutilated by the terrible heat so that they no longer resembled people...

Gurka (deity - author's note), arriving on a fast and powerful vimana, sent one projectile charged with all the power of the Universe against three cities. A sparkling column of smoke and fire flared up like ten thousand suns... The dead people were impossible to recognize, and the survivors did not live long: their hair, teeth and nails fell out. The sun seemed to tremble in the heavens. The earth trembled, scorched by the terrible heat of this weapon... The elephants burst into flames and ran madly in different directions... All the animals, crushed to the ground, fell, and from all sides the flames rained down continuously and mercilessly.”

Well, one can only once again be amazed at the ancient Indian texts, which were carefully preserved for centuries and brought these terrible legends to us. Translators and historians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries considered most of these texts simply an eerie fairy tale. After all, missiles with nuclear warheads were still a long way off.

Instead of cities there is a desert

In Mohenjo-Daro, many carved seals were found, which, as a rule, depicted animals and birds: monkeys, parrots, tigers, rhinoceroses. Apparently, in that era, the Indus Valley was covered with jungle. Now there is a desert there. The previously great Sumer and Babylonia were also buried under sand drifts.

The ruins of ancient cities are hidden in the deserts of Egypt and Mongolia. Scientists are now discovering traces of settlements in America in areas completely unsuitable for life. According to ancient Chinese chronicles, highly developed states were once located in the Gobi Desert. Traces of ancient buildings are found even in the Sahara.

In this regard, the question arises: why did once flourishing cities turn into lifeless deserts? Has the weather gone crazy or has the climate changed? Let's say. But why did the sand melt? It was this kind of sand, turned into a green glassy mass, that researchers found in the Chinese part of the Gobi Desert, in the area of Lake Lop Nor, and in the Sahara, and in the deserts of New Mexico. The temperature required to turn sand into glass does not occur naturally on Earth.

But four thousand years ago people could not have nuclear weapons. This means that the gods had it and used it, in other words, aliens, cruel guests from outer space.

Vasily MITSUROV, Candidate of Historical Sciences

Or Mahenjadara (translated as “hill of the dead”) - a city of the Indus Valley Civilization, which arose around 2600 BC. e. Located in Pakistan, in the Sindh province. It is the largest ancient city of the Indus Valley and one of the first cities in the history of South Asia, a contemporary of the civilization of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Mohenjo-Daro was discovered in 1920 along with the city of Harappa in Pakistan. The cities were clearly built according to the Vedic tradition.

The city of Mohenjo-Daro - history and photos

Mohenjo-Daro stands out among other centers of the Indus civilization with its almost ideal layout, the use of baked brick as the main building material, as well as the presence of complex irrigation and religious structures. Among other buildings, noteworthy are the granary and the “large pool” for ritual ablutions with an area of 83 square meters. m. and an elevated “citadel” (apparently intended for protection against floods).
The width of the streets in the city reached 10 m.

Almost the first public toilets known to archaeologists were discovered, as well as the city sewerage system. Part of the territory of the lower city, where commoners settled, was eventually flooded by the Indus and therefore remains unexplored.

A discovery 5000 years ago proved that a highly developed civilization existed in these places. And a culture that has been established for centuries. Judge for yourself if the city of high civilization is 5000 years old, then the civilization itself could not arise in one day, and this civilization has an equally long prehistory. Which means that the civilization and intelligence that built these cities is even older. A simple logical conclusion follows from this. That we can safely add 2000 years to the age of the cities found.

Mysteries of Mohenjo-Daro

In total, the age of the civilization itself was no less than 7000 years.
The most interesting thing is that the city was destroyed by a nuclear explosion. In the bones of the skeletons discovered at the excavation site of the city, the level of radiation was several times higher. The river that flowed nearby evaporated in an instant.

For many decades now, archaeologists have been concerned about the mystery of the death of the city of Mohenjo-Daro in India 3,500 years ago. In 1922, Indian archaeologist R. Banarji discovered ancient ruins on one of the islands of the Indus River. They named the ruins that gave birth to these.

Even then, questions arose: how was this large city destroyed, where did its inhabitants go? The excavations did not answer any of them...
Read about another interesting structure of the past that remains unanswered -.

The ruins of the buildings did not contain numerous corpses of people and animals, as well as fragments of weapons and signs of destruction. The only obvious fact was that the disaster occurred suddenly and did not last long.

The decline of culture is a slow process; no traces of flooding have been found. Moreover, there is indisputable data indicating massive fires. The epidemic does not strike people calmly walking along the streets or doing business, suddenly and simultaneously. This is exactly what happened - this is confirmed by the location of the skeletons. Paleontological studies also reject the epidemic hypothesis. With good reason, one can also reject the version of a sudden attack by the conquerors; none of the discovered skeletons contain traces left by bladed weapons.

Mohenjo-daro - nuclear explosion

Probably the sand and clay, under the influence of high temperature, first melted and then instantly hardened. The same layers of green glass appear in the desert of Nevada (USA) every time after a nuclear explosion. Analysis of the samples carried out at the University of Rome and in the laboratory of the Italian National Research Council showed that melting occurred at a temperature of 1400-1500 degrees. Such a temperature in those days could be obtained in the forge of a metallurgical workshop, but not in a vast open area

If you carefully examine the destroyed buildings, you get the impression that a clear area is outlined - the epicenter, in which all the buildings were swept away by some kind of squall. From the center to the periphery, the destruction gradually decreases. The outlying buildings are the best preserved. In short, the picture is reminiscent of the consequences of the atomic explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Is it conceivable to assume that the mysterious conquerors of the Indus Valley possessed atomic energy? Such an assumption seems incredible and categorically contradicts the ideas of modern historical science. However, the Indian epic “Mahabharata” speaks of a certain “explosion” that caused “a blinding light, fire without smoke,” while “the water began to boil, and the fish were charred.” What is it – just a metaphor.” D Davenport believes that at its core there is. some real events.

City of Mohenjo-daro occupied an area of about 259 hectares and was a network of blocks (the oldest example of such a layout), separated by wide streets with a developed drainage system, which were divided into smaller ones and built up with houses made of baked bricks. The dating of this settlement is still a matter of debate. Radiocarbon dating and connections with Mesopotamia allow it to be dated to 2300-1750. BC

When Indian archaeologists D. R. Sahin and R. D. Banerjee were finally able to look at the results of their excavations, they saw the red-brick ruins of the oldest city in India, belonging to the proto-Indian civilization, a city quite unusual for the time of its construction - 4.5 thousand years ago.
It was planned with the greatest meticulousness: the streets were laid out as if along a ruler, the houses were basically the same, with proportions reminiscent of cake boxes. But behind this “cake” shape there was sometimes hidden such a design: in the center there was a courtyard, and around it there were four to six living rooms, a kitchen and a room for ablutions (houses with this layout are found mainly in Mohenjo-Daro, the second big city) .

The preserved stairwells in some houses suggest that two-story houses were also built. The main streets were ten meters wide, the network of passages obeyed a single rule: some ran strictly from north to south, and transverse ones - from west to east.

But this monotonous city, like a chessboard, provided residents with amenities unheard of at that time. Ditches flowed through all the streets, and from them water was supplied to the houses (although wells were found near many). But more importantly, each house was connected to a sewerage system laid underground in pipes made of baked bricks and carrying all sewage outside the city limits.

This was an ingenious engineering solution that allowed large masses of people to gather in a fairly limited space: in the city of Harappa, for example, at times up to 80,000 people lived. The instinct of the city planners of that time was truly amazing! Knowing nothing about pathogenic bacteria, especially active in warm climates, but probably having accumulated observational experience, they protected settlements from the spread of dangerous diseases.

I really love historical dramas, especially those with a focus on more ancient periods of human existence.

The film “Mahenjo-Daro” should be shot according to all the canons of this genre; all the historicism and eventfulness is focused on one historical character, who is endowed with, well, just all the positive qualities. He is handsome, and strong, and brave, and smart, and moderately cunning, and kind, and courageous, in general, he is not endowed with any human qualities except the desire to love and receive the object of his desire.

The plot does not contain anything beyond the cardinal, as is always the case; the hero, unjustly deprived of his throne and alienated from it, in complete ignorance of what happened to his parents, comes to trade in the majestic city of Mahenjo-daro. And he finds in it everything he was looking for. And the beautiful girl Chaani, and the story of her origin, and her destiny, and of course she becomes the savior of the entire city population, simultaneously having a hand in the creation of the great Ganges River. All this against the backdrop of an ancient city, with songs, dances, bizarre (more fantasy than real) rituals, fights, bug-eyed villains, etc.

I rather disliked the film than liked it.

Scenario It’s like it was written on the knee, I don’t know about the historical accuracy, but about the development of the characters, it’s very bad. It seems that they worked more on the appearance of each character than on the interior, which is not typical for Indian cinema. All heroes are devoid of humanity and therefore seem empty.

Perhaps due to a flaw in the script, all the actors seem rather weak and strained.

Hrithik Roshan (protagonist Sarman) tried with all his might to extract at least something from this image, diligently sparkled his eyes and pompously threw back his chin, angrily twitching his nostrils. But it was not possible to create a full-fledged image. He is in excellent physical shape, as always, amazing work in the fight scenes, as always, a great sense of rhythm and dance, but that’s all, there is no internal experience, there is no emotional push from the screen that will make the viewer perk up a little.

Pooja Hegde (Chaani) Well, there’s absolutely no effort here. Very bad, external beauty alone is not enough, a close look at the camera is not enough, empty. Especially when there were sobs or pathetic speeches, horror. The role is not as big as it seems and not as complex, yes Chaani is the beloved of the main character, and it was her marriage that pushed Sarman to do great things, but where is the emotion? Where??? I had an association of white noise in my head when I saw her. There is no emotion, no message, no passion, no all-encompassing love, no inspiration. The only thing that worked perfectly, I don’t know how they achieved it, was the scene of Chaani being strangled, very realistic. Maybe they really strangled her a little in order to get at least something out (sarcasm, angry).

Kabir Bedi (Maham) an evil villain, very evil and very Indian. Somehow he reminded me of the main Indian villain Amrish Puri when his eyes widened. Kabir worked as much as the director allows, again the shortcomings are not of the actor, but rather of the screenwriter and director, there is no clear motive and development of his anger. Why there was so much greed in him, where the development of anger towards the whole world, there is no general idea.

Arunodai Sinkh (Munja) one of the few who have more or less clear emotions and experiences. A handsome, bearded heir to a false ruler, with ambitions as much for power as for personal love. There is both good and bad in it, the hero's moral vacillations are shown, which gives the image of Munji more realistic features. What the main character doesn't have, the question is why? After all, Hrithik is much more experienced.

Manish Chaudhary (priest) attracted attention in “I swear by you, my love,” but here again they were not allowed to open up; the impression was created that the actor was a little cramped in this image. Of all the available facial expressions, the actor was most likely to be given the mask of "surprise", "extreme surprise", "discouragement", "bashful surprise".

I don’t remember the name of the villain’s wife, much less the actress who played her, but she’s the only one who can get a 6.0 for technique and acting. A lively and complete image, apparently due to the insignificance of the character, they found time for internal fullness.

Some scenes were completely bewildering:

1. Scene with Chaani walking in simple clothes. Why is she destroying everything around? Why does she pour water on passers-by, break craftsmen's pots, and damage the property of strangers? Why??? She came out for the first time in simple clothes, no one would recognize her, and instead of curiosity, carelessness, joy, there was outright hooliganism. It's unclear! It doesn’t characterize the heroine in any way, doesn’t express a sense of freedom in any way, and it also goes against her decent image.

2. Scene with Maham cutting the rope before the flood. Well, he already started cutting, so why didn’t he finish it, I understand, they wanted to show his struggle to the end, a weak ray of hope for salvation, but why did he remain on the pole? It would have been much stronger if he had cut the rope and started running, and the stream of water overtook him somewhere in the city or at the exit from the city. I was left with the feeling that they were trying to portray it, nothing else came to mind, they started doing it and in the end they didn’t finish it and forgot about it.

3. It’s not the scene, but what shocked me was that the main character’s outfit changes five times during his stay in Mahenjo-Daro! How?! he is a simple peasant, clothes were expensive then, or rather, where did so much come from? And Chaani’s headdress changes only three times! and then one of them is wedding. In my opinion, it looks like a flaw or over-processing.

4. All the unicorn scenes! Why computer graphics? For what? The horn in Sarman's turban looked much more realistic than this creature. It’s not that there wasn’t enough realism, there wasn’t enough beauty and aesthetics in this animal, because the unicorn is a sacred, inspiring symbol.

What I really liked: music and dancing!

The film looks more like someone's thesis with a big budget. I can compare it to an unripe pear, which I bought quite expensively. On the one hand, there is scope and famous actors, and only because of this you try to find at least something worthy, but alas. Even a high price will not make a green pear ripe.

The city of Mohenjo-Daro is another of the treasures of ancient civilizations and evidence of their existence. The city is located in the Indus River Valley, namely in Pakistan, in the Sindh province. The city of Mohenjo-Daro is one of the oldest cities in the world and the very first city in South Asia. ( 11 photos)

The city was built 2 thousand years BC, lived and actively developed for about nine hundred years. The city is still shrouded in mystery, very little is known about it, and a number of questions remain open: who built it? when exactly? How did they manage to build such a city? and the main question is why the city was abandoned by its inhabitants? So far, Mohenjo-Daro is the main subject among archaeologists and historians. It is believed that Mohenjo-Daro was “the administrative center of the ancient inhabitants of the Indian civilization.

Only a few remains of the city have survived to this day; you yourself understand how much time has passed, but with the help of the latest technologies, scientists were able to establish that about 50,000 people lived in the city. This is a very large city for that time. The city was made of clay bricks, isn’t it interesting, 2000 BC these are bricks, and not just some kind of cakes, but baked bricks. Subsequently, local residents stole them to build their houses and all other needs.

It is also surprising that the city already at that time had a clear architectural focus, all alleys and streets were clearly measured and had a right angle, the city did not have any dead ends or incomprehensible labyrinths, which we can see in other ancient cities. The streets in the city were clearly coordinated, and the length was 8 meters, that is, on such a road two carts could easily pass each other, so there was no crowding on the street.

The unique qualities of the architecture include the presence of centralized nationalization and complete water supply. They thought that the first and only water supply appeared in the great ancient Rome, as you can see, the ancient inhabitants of Mohenjo-Daro also reached this stage of development. More specifically, the city had “public baths” equipped with a hot water supply; most houses also had a primitive (for our time) and not constant water supply, but still, this speaks of the high intelligence of civilization. All sewer water flowed into special drainage pits, usually located outside the city.

The height of the houses reached 7 meters in height, the architecture of the city had a fairly clear form of structures, the city was even divided into two tiers, of course, the main life took place below, but the houses had a second floor, and the roof of the first floors served as balconies. The city was also highly developed economically, Mohenjo-Daro was in an excellent geographical position, next to it was the Indus River, in fact, Mohenjo-Daro was a trading center, traders came here from all over Asia to exchange goods.

A large building with good ventilation passages was also discovered, perhaps it was a barn for storing grain. It can be assumed that religion in the city was also at a special level; an ancient mosque was found, to which a long street leads. Unfortunately, now most of the city is submerged under a multi-meter layer of silt; excavations are also hampered by groundwater that covers the city.

It is not clear why such an intelligent and well-developed civilization disappeared without a trace, all the people literally evaporated, archaeologists found the remains of only about 2,000 people out of 50,000. There are various theories on this matter, perhaps people simply left the city due to the constantly flooding river bed, this is an opinion arose after the discovery of a large wall, with which residents may have tried to protect themselves from floods.

The remains of the townspeople were found completely intact, that is, they did not die a violent death, and the remains of any weapons were not found in the city. Which automatically cancels the theory about the attack of the Aryan civilization. Fans of the mystical world actively claim the movement of people to another time, and the abduction of people by aliens.

It is not known for certain why the city was abandoned, perhaps it was an earthquake of unprecedented strength, or a unique discharge of several ball lightning, the force of the explosion can be equated to nuclear. The remains of the inhabitants were radioactive, which allows scientists to claim the explosion of an atomic bomb, but what kind of bomb was at that time, this is at least not logical, it means some kind of explosion of natural origin, a discharge of electricity as an option.

Despite all the efforts of archaeologists and historians on how and why the city was abandoned, Mohenjo-Daro stubbornly keeps all the secrets. And we can only guess and comment on the article)