Mohenjo-Daro (Mound of the Dead Men

I have recently developed a fascination of discovering different and in-depth history of a country or city I want to travel to.



Recently the country on my bucket list to explore deeply, is my motherland Pakistan, even though I have now visited 3 times already, I still feel like I have not fully appreciated what my motherland has to offer, from the North to the South and all the way to the East and West, unexpectedly but nevertheless a delightful surprise, there is so much of a vast history in Pakistan, which I feel ashamed to mention, that I have not discovered completely, yet.



So here I am, dwelling in and consuming constantly, travel-vlogs, witnessing tourist and foreigners indulging in the history, the colour and hospitality of my motherland, and therefore am left regretting, that someone like me, who is a Pakistani, a Kashmiri, and I have still yet to explore the country I call my motherland, where my ancestors are from and where my heritage exists.



Every time I learn something new, it is a must that I have to share it at the family dinner table, because as a family we like to discuss our discoveries and share our knowledge, and when and if we discover the falseness or truthiness of a topic, then our discussions end up to be healthy debates, not to worry, we are a perfectly, normal family with opinions, differences and strong characters.



So, recently I discovered that an ancient civilisations existed in my motherland, (for an ancient history this one is definitely under explored), presumably due to this false image of Pakistan which exists in the world. At first me and my family presumed this particular history resides in the Indian side of the border, because a) Bollywood (an Indian film Industry) made a movie based on this ancient civilisations, so automatically we thought that the history was theirs’ (well in some sense it is, due to Indo-Pak being one country once upon a time) and b) it just can’t be Pakistan, as we never heard of such civilisations, (how foolish of us).



Oh boy, were we wrong, in fact, this civilisation roots exist in Pakistan, believe it or not and the history can be seen in the dessert lands.



To my upmost surprise, I felt excited and the traveller in me wanted to explore, so I did the best I could and dwelled deep into all these Pakistani travel-vlogs and discovered more and more foreigners are visiting Pakistan (despite the false information they have been told of how unsafe Pakistan is, finally the world is waking up, Hallelujah!) and sharing and discovering the unexplored history it has to offer in all the different parts of the region (and believe me there is lot which will keep you intrigued).



So, what did I discover, once upon a time, in the province of Sindh which is the south of Pakistan, one of the largest and oldest settlements existed of the Indus Valley Civilisation, known to the world as Mohenjo-Daro, translated to Mound of the Dead Men (in English). It was built around 2500 BCE and was one of the worlds earliest and major city created. It has been said that this city was co-existing in the same time period of the ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamia, Minoan Crete and Norte Chico, and in the 19th century, when the Indus Valley Civilisation was slowly declining Mohenjo-Daro was abandoned. (Thank you, Wikipedia and Travel-vlogs!)



So presumably, I believe that, the Sindhi’s (Reffeered to People residing in Sindh) knew they were living on an ancient land (how could they not) and among the unknown and well-structured rumbles of the old city, telling folktales, which were passed down from their forefathers, of the history as they know it or heard it, of their beloved land.



So, how do we know of it’s history now, in the 1920s the city was rediscovered, excavation was done and then in 1980 the city has been registered on UNESCO World Heritage Site. (Thank you Wikipedia and Travel-vlogs, again.)



However, Mohenjo-Daro has been discovered recently or should we say re-rediscovered due to the increase of travel-vloggers going to Pakistan, because in the 20s up until 2018 (I think, and especially referring to myself) not many knew about or heard of Mohenjo-Daro, expect for the people living in those lands, the historians and the archeologist.



Now, it is accessible for foreigners, tourist and travellers to explore and breath in the rich history of the Indus Valley, it has become a must-see site for all travellers, and thanks to all the travel-vloggers it has been discovered by people like me who are British or American-Pakistanis (etc), that want to discover the richness of their motherland.



Knowing that such history and more exists in Pakistan and around the world gives us a sense of pride and makes me in awe of the world. It is the history which makes the world and once upon a time we will too become part of the world’s history. So to all the travellers, historians and lovers of the world, do not miss the opportunity to explore such histories, and also add Pakistan in your bucket list of countries to visit. You will not regret it.