# Abandonment of Mohenjo-daro (c. 1700 BCE)

URL: https://allhistories.com/pakistan/timeline/-1700-abandonment-of-mohenjo-daro
Location: Mohenjo-daro, Sindh
Themes: Indus decline, Heritage

By about 1700 BCE, according to Wikipedia, Mohenjo-daro had been abandoned as the Indus civilisation declined. UNESCO's synthesis says the city flourished for roughly 800 years across the third and second millennia BCE. The estimated abandonment date is approximate, since other sources place the end of urban life nearer 1900 BCE. The ruins then lay undocumented for about 3,700 years. A Buddhist stupa was built over part of the site in the second century CE, though the city's original identity had been lost by then. The Japanese version of the UNESCO text gives the discovery date as 1921, whereas the English synthesis says 1922. Excavation in the twentieth century revealed the city, and the site was inscribed by UNESCO in 1980. Modern conservation faces rising groundwater, salt damage and weathering, and Pakistani archaeologists warned in 2012 that the site might disappear by 2030 without sustained protection. Conservation remains a major concern for Pakistan's heritage authorities. At this point in the timeline (c. 1700 BCE), no rulers are known by name: the Indus cities had declined, and Late Harappan and early Vedic-era communities held the region.

## Why it matters
The long silence after abandonment makes Mohenjo-daro's rediscovery in the 1920s one of archaeology's great reversals and a continuing conservation challenge.

Ruler at the Time: [Indus Valley Civilisation (no named rulers)](https://allhistories.com/pakistan/rulers/indus-valley-civilisation-no-named-rulers)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Mohenjo-daro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohenjo-daro)
- [UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/138/)