Harappan region was an expansive human settlement along the banks of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra rivers from around 3,500 BCE, occupying large parts of what are Gujarat, the Indus valley and northwest India today. The civilisation’s many advancements, especially in urban planning and engineering, have had it occupying the pride of place in India’s history as a sign of our own advanced knowledge systems.

Around 1,300 BCE, the civilisation petered out for reasons that aren’t entirely known. A change in monsoon patterns has been the prime suspect. However, the lack of continuous climate records from the time has prevented scientists from confirming this suspicion, leaving the civilisation’s dissipation a matter of debate.

"Farmers in the Indus valley were the first to spin and weave cotton. In 1929 archaeologists recovered fragments of cotton textiles at Mohenjo-Daro, in what is now Pakistan, dating to between 3250 and 2750 BCE.

Cottonseeds founds at nearby Mehrgarh have been dated to 5000 BCE. Literary references further point to the ancient nature of the subcontinent's cotton industry.

The Vedic scriptures, composed between 1500 and 1200 BCE allude to cotton spinning and weaving.

Harappan objects were made of Stone, Shell, and Metal. Copper and bronze were used to make tools, weapons, ornaments, and vessels. Gold and silver were used to make ornaments and vessels. Harappans also made stone seals.

Indus Valley homes were built from dried or baked mud or clay bricks. Stones were not used. A few other materials were used to complement the bricks to make the roofs, floors, interior walls, etc. Although hundreds of sites have been identified, only three cities have been yet excavated.

Memphis belonged to the Egyptian Civilization. According to legend related by Manetho, the city was founded by the pharaoh Menes. Capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom, it remained an important city throughout ancient Mediterranean history.

The different stages of the indigenous evolution of the Indus can be documented by an analysis of four sites that reflect the sequence of the four important stages or phases in the pre-history and proto-history of the Indus valley region.

Gold, copper, silver, bronze metals were known to Indus Valley Civilization but not iron. The Indus valley people or Harappan people not discovered iron. The Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age Civilization extending from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India, it was one of three early Civilization of the Old World. Inhabitants of the ancients Indus river valley developed new techniques in handicraft (carnelian products, seal carving) and metallurgy (copper, bronze, lead, and tin).

Certain Seals and tablets found in Indus Valley civilisation have inscriptions which indicate towards a script being used during that time. It is a set of symbols or pictures whose meaning has not been deciphered till yet. These seals and tablets were used for identification during trade. It has been established that the script was written from right to left.

Main channels of our knowledge about the Indus Valley Civilization are Archaeological excavations. In archaeology, excavation is the exposure , processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site is a site being studied. It is very helpful to bringing the past to life. Excavation involves the recovery of several types of data from a site

Kalibangan, which is located in the present-day Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan is a part of Indus Valley Civilization. It saw two cultural phases - pre-Harappan (from 3500BC to 2500 BC) and Harappan (from 2500BC to 1500BC). The pre-Harappan community was a fortified parallelogram. The fortification wall which was constructed surrounding the community used the mud-bricks. Apart from that, mud bricks were used for the construction of houses within the walled area. 

Total number of Harappan sites in the western state of Gujarat is more than 190. Some of them are Lothal, Prabhas Patan, Rojdi, Desalpur and Surkotada. Desalpur is famous for disproportionately large fortification. At Surkotada, a compact citadel and residential annexe complex has been found.

Indus Valley Civilization which is also referred as Harappan civilization is of the largest cities of its time.This civilization was discovered in 1920 - 22 with the excavation of two of its most important sites i.e , Harappa on the banks of the river Ravi and Mohenjodaro on the banks of the Indus. The Indus Valley civilization is called the Harappan civilization because Harappa was the first site where the unique archaeological evidences of the civilization were discovered.

By about 2500 BC, four Bronze Age civilizations emerged. These were:

Lothal is one of the most prominent cities of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, located in the Bhal region of the modern state of Gujarat. It is the place where trade once flourished with other ancient civilizations such as Roman civilization. The seals found at Lothal indicates a maritime trade network with Persian Gulf, Mesopotamia, etc.