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The cities in Saraswati Civilization were not created in a short time by a visionary ruler or architect. But the cities grew out of earlier villages. The first thing that strikes the visitor to these sites is the town-planning. One stands spellbound to see the streets and the lanes laid out according to a set plan–the main street running from north to south and the cross streets and lanes running at right angles to them. At Kalibangan amongst the north-south streets, there was a principal one, 7.20 meters wide, while the other north-south street three quarters of its width. Each city was surrounded by vast agricultural lands, rivers, forests, that were inhabited by scattered farming and pastoral communities. The cities may not have direct control over all these communities but they certainly controlled the movement of trade goods passing through the territory into and out of the city markets. A rough estimate of the hinterland for each of the inland cities ranges approximately 100,000 to 170,000 square kilometers.

City Planning This idea of settlement planning did not appear suddenly in the first large cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, but was already well established in the phase prior to 2600 B.C.. Saraswati Civilization is often misrepresented in the popular literature as having a standard division into high western citadel and a lower town in the east, reflecting the division of the city into rulers’ and service classes. But this representation is not correct as large public buildings and market places, large and small private houses have been found.

Astronomy and City planningThe orientation of the Sindhu cities along the cardinal directions is not simply a coincidence but is probably linked to religious beliefs, reflecting the precise knowledge of astronomical observations of the movement of the sun,moon and stars across the heavens. Establishing an east-west line of marking out the foundation of a building could have been done by sighting on the stars that rise in the east or set in the west or by mapping the movements of the sun. An early Vedic text recommends sighting on the rising constellation of the Pleiades for establishing an East-West line. Later texts explain how to make a true East-West line, by placing a peg in the ground and drawing a circle around the peg, using a string that is as long as the peg itself. Stakes placed at the point where the shadow of the peg enters and leaves the circle define the east-west line. Another method is to sight on the rising constellation called Krittikah which in Greek tradition is called Pleiades.

The Sindhu settlements of this far-flung early civilization, like most of the ancient civilization lay at or near rivers. The peculiar structures, in the excavated cities include, the citadel, granary, buildings, pillars, kitchen, bathrooms, water supply and drainage system and the great bath.

The Citadel In all the towns in the Saraswati Civilization, to the west lies a “Citadel”, approximately 400 by 200 yards in extent and erected on a high platform constructed of mud and brick defended by crenelatted walls.

The Citadel in Harappa was a peculiar one, it being the second capital of the Saraswati Civilization. It was built of mud bricks externally rivitted with kiln-burnt bricks, the mud brick wall measured over 13 meters in width at the base and tapered inwards on both the exterior and the interior. At paces it rises to the hight of about 15 metres above the surrounding plain. Behind it was a 7 meter high mud brick platform, on which stood the buildings inside the Citadel. Externally the Citadel was punctuated at places by rectangular towers. In the Citadel in Harappa have been found the quarters for the workers, which stood in two rows running from East to West.

The Citadel in Kalibangan was fortified with a 7 meter thick mud brick wall with towers at intervals. Kalibangan is situated on the left bank river Ghaggar in Rajasthan. The same kind of  structures also can be seen in the town of Lothal, which is near the Gulf of Cambay. Lothal is the only site with a dockyard which is 216 meters in length and 37 meters in width, situated to the East of the township. There was a structure near the  dockyard that consisted of 12 rectangular blocks arranged in four rows, covering an area of 17x14 meters. It is said that it was a warehouse, where commodities ready for export or received from abroad were stored.

The Great Bath The most exciting feature in the city of Mohenjo-Daro is probably The Great Bath, which is thirty nine feet long, twenty three feet wide and eight feet deep. It is sunk into the paving of a courtyard and waterproofed with `bitumen’.
It is approachable from the north and the south by brick steps with possible wooden stair treads. The floor of the bath slopes to an outlet that leads in turn to an arched drain deep enough for an adult to stand upright.Just north of the pool, archeologists discovered eight small bathrooms, drained by small outlets in the floor. Each bathroom has its own staircase leading to the second story. If the whole complex served a purpose of tanks of the later Hindu temples, we may assume that the second story had cells of the priests and that the baths were designed for their daily ritual ablutions. It is a fair supposition that the complex related to the religious life of the city and rulers. Stuart Piggot observes “the Great Bath takes its place well in a sacred site when one considers the tank ancillary to every Hindu temple of the Middle Ages.”

Pottery A great deal of pottery has been found at sites in Harappa. It is an index of the economic and artistic standards of the people. The Sindhu people used a very sturdy red-ware, made of well-levigated and well fired clay. Very often it had paintings of
birds, animals and human figures. The great bulk of pottery is wheel turned while handmade pieces are also found.There are small vessels painted in several colours. A similar kind of vessel is also found at Nal in Baluchistan. A charming type of pottery consists of numerous miniature vessels that in some case are less than a half inch high.They are of the most beautiful workmanship, well finished, polished. It is suggested that these type of vessels were used for storing costly scented oil and cosmetics. However it is more evident that they were used for the enjoyment of the children.