Ancient sites
The mounds of Harappan cities, Buddhist Taxila and the oldest places of the Punjab.
Best known first
The largest of the Indus cities, on the Indus in Sindh, with the Great Bath, a citadel mound and a grid of brick streets and covered drains.
One of the great cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation, on an old course of the Ravi. It flourished around 2600–1900 BCE.
Ancient city and centre of learning between the Indus and Jhelum, visited by Alexander in 326 BCE and later a Buddhist centre.
Plain of the Mahabharata war. Guru Nanak and later Gurus visited during solar eclipse fairs.
A great Harappan city on the old Ghaggar–Drishadvati plain, perhaps the largest of all; ancient DNA from its cemetery was sequenced in 2019.
Indus town on the dry Ghaggar with the oldest ploughed field ever excavated and rows of fire altars.
Harappan settlement on the Sutlej, the first excavated in independent India.
River valley with some of South Asia's oldest stone tools, the Soanian culture.
BanawaliFatehabad, Haryana, IndiaHarappan town on the Sarasvati–Ghaggar plain, where a touchstone streaked with gold and a terracotta plough were found.
GanweriwalaCholistan, Punjab, PakistanAn unexcavated Harappan city in the Cholistan desert, on a dry bed of the Hakra, about halfway between Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.
Neolithic village below the Bolan Pass where farming began around 7000 BCE: the deep root of the Indus cities.
Fortified town that gives its name to the Early Harappan phase, 2800–2600 BCE, just before the great cities rose.