Harappa’s Parallel Walls: What Were They For?

When Daya Ram Sahni began his work at Harappa in the early 1920s, he quickly realized something unusual: a set of walls built side by side, in a block pattern. He described them as “six parallel walls, of the stouter kind.”

While many believed these structures might have been granaries, later investigations (especially by Mark Kenoyer and Richard Meadow in 1998–2000) found no traces of grain at Harappa or even at Mohenjo-daro, where a similar structure was found.

Sahni’s Original Observation

Sahni reported that near the center of the mound, he first uncovered two thick walls running parallel. As excavation continued, wall followed wall, and he counted a total of 14 walls. Each wall was about 51 feet, 9 inches long. On the western side, these ended at a corridor 24 feet wide. Across that corridor was another set of walls aligned the same way, though only six were found so far in that second row.

He noted there were two types of walls:

Thicker walls: about 9 feet wide at the base, made of hardened clay from the riverbed and lined with burnt brick walls. Above that, solid burnt bricks. The height was about 8 feet.
Thinner walls: in between the thicker ones, possibly dividing spaces or creating narrower compartments.

The thick walls were spaced evenly—around 17 to 18 feet apart. Sahni mentioned that without the thinner walls, one could imagine them forming large rooms.

The Mystery Remains

Even after all these investigations, experts still don’t agree on what the walls were for. Were they storage facilities? Or did they serve something else? Because no grain remains or other clear evidence was found, the usage remains speculative.

If you want to learn more about Harappa—its layout, discoveries, history—visit our detailed Harappa page: Harappa – Travel & Culture Services.