Harappa, the type-site of the Indus civilization, is today a large village in the Montgomery District of Punjab, 15 miles southwest of the district town. It overlies and adjoins the mounds of the ancient city, which appear to have had a circuit of not less than 3 miles, though the more emphatic mounds occupy a considerably smaller expanse.
The site at Harappa was first briefly excavated by Sir Alexander Cunningham in 1872-73; two decades after brick robbers carried off the visible remains of the city. He found an Indus seal of unknown origin. The first extensive excavations at Harappa were started by Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni in 1920. His work and contemporaneous excavations at Mohenjo-daro first brought to the world's attention the existence of the forgotten Indus Valley civilization as the earliest urban culture in the Indian subcontinent.
