Kot Diji Fort SINDH

Kot Diji Fort

Kot Diji is situated between Ranipur and Khairpur on the highway from Hyderabad, at the east bank of the Indus close to Rohri. The discovery of Kot Diji provides the evidence that there is a civilization before Mohen-jo-daro. Archaeologists say that the discovery of this pre-historic site has furnished information of high significance since it pushed back the pre-historic of Pakistan by at least another 300 years from about 2,500 B.C. to 2,800 B.C.

Evidence of new cultural elements of pre-Mohen-jo-daro time has been found at Kot Diji. Excavations have proved that the Indus Valley Civilizations borrowed or developed some of the basic cultural elements of the Kot Dijians.The site consists of two parts: one comprising of the citadel area on the high ground where the ruling elite lived and an outer area inhabited by common man.

The Kot Diji culture is marked by well-furnished, well-made pottery and houses built of mud-bricks on solid stone foundations. In fact, the Kot Dijian ceramics, though different in form and technique, are in no way less artistic than the sophisticated back-on-red pottery of Mohen-jo-daro civilization.

A real image from Kotdigi Qilla entrance. The front door has huge protective iron nails from elephant attack. The door is situated in a 45 degree turn to avoid a straight army attach.

While taking this photo a bullock cart was captured in the photo which was passing accidentally through as a part of their regular travel to local town. Similar bullock cart was in use in Mohen-jo- daro about 2500 BC years <click here to see the image>. Amazingly a Pajero jeep was parked at the entrance of fort, which can be seen in the shadow of fort. This shows a historical display of modern machine and ancient Mohen-jo-daro civilization both in practice.

The Mohen-jo-daro civilization borrowed some of the basic cultural elements from Kot Dijians. They decoration designs, such as the "fish scale " intersecting circles and the piped leaf pattern were all evolved from the Kot Dijian decorated elements like the horizontal and wavy lines, loops and simple triangular patterns. There is, however, no proof yet of the place or the region from where these Kot Dijians arrived in The Indus Valley. There is so much to see and explore that tourists and researchers find themselves lost in a never ending excursion of a rich archaeological past.

Source: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/myjamro/sindh/historicalplaces.htm#Kot diji fort