Mohenjodaro, one of the most well-known sites of the Harappan civilisation, exhibits several distinctive features that reflect advanced urban planning.

The settlement was divided into two sections – a smaller but higher section called the Citadel and a larger but lower section called the Lower Town. The Citadel owed its height to buildings constructed on mud brick platforms and was walled, physically separating it from the Lower Town.

One of the most distinctive features was the carefully planned drainage system. Roads and streets were laid out along an approximate "grid" pattern, intersecting at right angles. Streets with drains were laid out first, and houses were then built along them. Every house needed at least one wall along a street for domestic waste water to flow into street drains.

Domestic architecture in the Lower Town showed remarkable planning. Houses were centred on a courtyard with rooms on all sides, which served as the centre of activities like cooking and weaving. There was an apparent concern for privacy – no windows existed along ground level walls, and the main entrance did not give a direct view of the interior. Every house had its own bathroom paved with bricks with drains connected to street drains. Many houses had wells, with scholars estimating about 700 wells in Mohenjodaro.

The Great Bath was a unique structure – a large rectangular tank in a courtyard surrounded by a corridor on all four sides. It had two flights of steps, was made watertight using bricks set on edge with gypsum mortar, and had rooms on three sides. Scholars suggest it was meant for a special ritual bath.