Banawali Indus Valley Site, near Fatehabad town, looks like a series of low mounds on the dry bed of an old river, but it is one of Haryana’s most important Indus Valley Civilisation sites. The excavated areas show traces of streets, mud-brick houses, fortifications and drains, giving a sense of a planned proto-urban settlement. Pottery, beads, terracotta objects and seals found here are displayed in museums, while at the site itself information boards help visitors imagine the ancient town that once stood along a flowing Saraswati-like river.
About this place
History & highlights
Archaeological work by the Archaeological Survey of India, led especially by R. S. Bisht, revealed that Banawali has a three-fold cultural sequence – Pre-Harappan, Harappan and late Bara (post-Harappan). It lay on the upper middle valley of the now-dried Saraswati and is often compared with Kalibangan in Rajasthan, which sat further downstream. The fortified Harappan town here shows typical Indus features like grid planning and specialised craft areas, indicating that this region was part of a thriving Bronze Age trade and cultural zone. For Fatehabad district, Banawali provides a deep time dimension, turning local fields into a window onto 4,000–5,000-year-old urban life.
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