Audio tour Mohenjo - Daro (2.5 thousand years BC - the territory of modern Pakistan)

The big city of Indus Valley Civilisation had a high level of urban beautification: there were efficient water supply system and drainage system. Water flowed from the Indus River to the city through the channels that were laid in the brick gutters. But the Indus often changed its course, and therefore the inhabitants built deep wells, which were interconnected and were the sources of water in the cities. It was especially difficult to combine vertical and horizontal workings. This required the use of complex and expensive technical solutions with mounts.

That’s why the wells were reinforced with masonry. There were more than 600 round wells in Mohenjo-Daro the walls of which were reinforced with special blade bricks.

Mohenjo-Daro's houses were made of burnt bricks. The interior consisted of 4-6 rooms and special rooms for water procedures. The last could have mobile baths or built-in baths made of baked bricks. Through drains and brick channels dirty water from the bathhouse was discharged into a common underground sewer system, which passed along the road. The restrooms in the houses were a characteristic feature of Indus cities. Historians believe that one of the earliest flush toilets was in Mohenjo - Daro. These were brick toilets with a wooden toilet seats. Such toilets had vertical shafts through which waste fell into street sewer that went outside the city or into a cesspool.

Some scientists consider that the first public restrooms could have been in Mohenjo Daro.

The wells, the baths and the toilets were located in the houses along the wall adjacent to  main street so that water and waste could drain into the gutter, falling into the city cleaning system. There were the ancient "garbage chutes" – the gutters for dumping household waste into street containers along the same wall.

After the disappearance of Indus civilization, the history of domestic culture takes a step back. Poor huts appear on the territories of deserted cities, the inhabitants of which were not destined to take the path of civilisation soon.