Few things better represent the power of ancient Indus cities in their time - much like subways and digital switches do modern cities - than brick drains. Four drains that could from Harappa and Mohenjo-daro show that the volume of water that flowed through these structures must have been like nothing seen before by ancient wayfarers. John Marshall writes: "A remarkable feature of the city of Mohenjo-daro is the very elaborate drainage system that exists even in the poorest quarters of the city.

"The centralized planning of the Harappan settlements," writes the archaeologist write Dilip Chakrabarti, "is one of their most famous features."

Latest research on archaeological sites of the ancient Indus Civilisation, which stretched across what is now Pakistan and northwest India during the Bronze Age, has revealed that domesticated rice farming in South Asia began far earlier than previously believed.

Rehman Dheri is one of the earliest planned urban sites found in South Asia to date. The site was first explored in 1971 by Professor Ahmad Hassan Dani and excavated by Professor Farzand Ali Durrani from the University of Peshawar from 1976 to 1982, and again in 1991.