Indus Valley Civilization

Indus Valley Civilization - UNESCO world heritage and vibrant culture

Join us in an epic 1200 km road trip through the Indus Valley, plunging into 5000 years of history from the Bronze Age to contemporary day. The fertile floodplains of Punjab and Sindh bear witness to mighty civilizations that rose and fell by the banks of the River Indus and its tributaries. From the highly advanced urban developments of the ancient Indus Valley civilization, centers of learning and commerce that flourished during classical Buddhist and Hindu dynasties, shrines of Sufi saints who showed the masses ways of love, to mosques and monuments that commemorate rulers and leaders, these heritage sites are residues of a rich tapestry of diverse people’s stories that was interwoven on this land, intricately bound up with the changing flow of the rivers.
River Indus

The Indus River is the lifeline of present day Pakistan. In ancient times, it was known in Sanskrit as Sindhu. Punjab is also named after its rivers: Panj-aab: the land of five rivers. This fan of tributaries join into the Indus in the border areas of Punjab and Sindh; its waters have nourished the alluvial soils of the two provinces, blessing its inhabitants with abundant agricultural produce.

In our journey, we will trace the river upstream from the coast of the Arabian Sea. The rivers of the Indus Valley have been channels of commerce and travel since ancient times. As early as 2600 BCE, the Indus Valley Civilization has been participating in maritime trade networks that extended from Central Asia to the Middle East. The army of Alexander the Great had marched south along the river in their Indian military campaign around 326 BCE, founding ‘Alexandria on the Indus’ at the junction of the Chenab and Indus, and waited for their fleet at Krokola (present day Karachi area) before departing for Babylonia. Arab traders have long been visiting ports on the Indus before Muslim armies invaded in the 8th century CE. The palm tree groves around the twin cities of Sukkar and Rohri are said to be accidentally sown by Arab soldiers when they discarded date seeds where they had camped. The rivers have also been conduits of folk romance and mysticism. We will visit shrines where Hindus and Muslims alike flocked, in reverence to Odero Lal and Khwaja Khizr, patron saints of the Indus, and Shah Latif, whose poetry includes spiritual interpretation of a legendary folktale: that of the heroine Sohni who swam across the River Chenab every night to meet her beloved Mahiwal.