The Indus Civilization (2600-1900 BCE) is named after Indus, the river that had fascinated the Western World since the days of Alexander the Great. Legend has it that the great conqueror had looked for the famed Fountain of Youth in its waters. Indus has its source in Tibet and its delta in Sindh, Pakistan. In the early twentieth century Sven Hedin, the famous Swedish explorer had looked for its source. At the sight of the Lion River, as it is called in Tibet, he made a resolve. “Though it costs me my life I will find some day thy source over yonder in the forbidden land.” In 1907 he finally discovered that source in Kailash, the highest peak of a Mountain range in Tibet. Indus is held sacred even after the advent of Islam in the sub-continent and it continues to lure the West.
The civilization that emerged on its banks is the largest ancient civilization as it was spread over an area stretching from the foothills of Himalayas in the North to the Arabian Sea coast in the South and from the Pakistan Iranian borderlands in the West to Gujrat in India in the East. So far about 1500 sites have been identified as the ancient Indus sites; Moen jo Daro, translated Mound of the Dead, being the largest. Harappa, Kali Bangan, Rakhigarhi, Lothal, Dholavira are a few other larger sites.
Indus Civilization remains mysterious as the script and symbols, engraved on tiny steatite seals, discovered from its ruins are not yet deciphered. The Civilization has also gone unrecorded in history. Whereas its contemporaneous Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations are mentioned in Bible, Indus Civilization has no reference in the earliest Indian texts such as the Vedas and the Mahabharata. It had lasted for seven centuries but it did not mature to a state organized empire and remained arrested in an urban phase. Moen jo Daro, the most elaborate site, therefore lacks in palaces, temples and royal tombs it even lacks a cemetery! At one point in time the city had an estimated population of 50,000. Where did it disappear?
parveentalpur 
Bhanbhore, in fact is the ancient port city of Barbarikon, through which the Kushan Empire traded all the way to Rome -a sea-borne Silk-route. The term Deban is corrupted version of the word Devil. Even the present site of Bhanbhor had a devil in ruins, which I visited in March 1975 together with a group of participants in Sindh Through Centuries international seminar. Sindhi historians haven’t done much comparative research. I have discussed this in detail in my chapter on Pakistan in S.F. Starr (ed.) NEW SILK Roads…, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University, 2007 (In fact, the volume is proceedings of our conference held in Kabul, April 2006). Kushans traded through Barbarikon so richly that they were the first in Asia to have introduced gold coins in 200 B.C. The Mallahs of Bhanbhore were very popular in Roman Empire, who called Sindh as Meluha (The country of Mallahs). I have the Roman map which calls Sindh as Mlluha. Moreover, Not General Zia, but starting with Gen. Ayub Khan, with many mullah like Urdu migrants on curriculum boards, history of Pakistan started with the Arab conquest of Sindh, ignoring the entire past history of centuries. I documented this after evaluating the entire history/social studies curriculla taught at the secondary school level, in my book Kazi, Aftab A. Ethnicity and Education in Nation-Building in Pakistan, The University Press of America, 1987. Origins of Bhanbhor are unknown. Some say it might had been the port of Alexandria, Alexander the Great created in order to ship his booty and prisoners of war to Byblon. I disagree with this argument, because the sea level in Sindh those days was much higher, probably nearby to moder Hyderabad (Patala, as called during the days of Alexander. Therefore, the port either may had been created by Persians for trade, who ruled Sindh before Kushans or by Kushans themselves. God knows better.
Hoping that my comments will be helpful to you.
Profesor Aftab Kazi
Senior Fellow, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute
SAIS, Johns Hopkins UNiversity, Washington, DC.
Currently Visiting HEC Foreign Profesor
Area Study Center
Quaid-i-Azam University of Islamabad.