The Indus (सिन्धु नदी) (known as Sindhu in ancient times) is the principal river of Pakistan. It originates in Tibet, flowing from the Himalayas in a north-westerly direction through Kashmir, and then turning south for nearly the entire length of Pakistan. The Indus Valley Civilization had some of the earliest urban settlements in the world.
The Indus River in northern Pakistan, near the rock Aornus.
The ultimate source of the Indus is actually in Tibet; it begins at the confluence of the Sengge River and Gar River that drain the Nganglong Kangri and Gangdise Shan ranges. The Indus then flows northwest through Gilgit-Baltistan just south of the Karakoram range, then gradually bends to the south, coming out of the hills between Peshawar and Rawalpindi. It is dammed in this area also, forming the Tarbela Reservoir. The remainder of its route to the sea is in plains of the Punjab and Sind, and the river becomes slow-flowing and highly braided. Passing by Hyderabad, it ends in a large delta to the southeast of Karachi.
The Indus is one of the few rivers in the world that exhibit a tidal bore.
History and Archeology
The Indus Valley Civilization was one of the oldest urban civilizations in the world. Its name comes from the Sanskrit word for river, 'sindhu', from which the 's' was dropped by its adoption into Persian. This gave the Persians the name of the land associated with the river 'Hindu' and the Greeks, dropping the 'H', 'Indus'. Its name was given to the entire subcontinent by the Romans, who adopted it to the current 'India'.
Wildlife
The Indus River Dolphin, modern genetic studies show, lives both in the Indus River and in the Ganges. The two populations were formerly considered distinct species. It formerly occurred in the tributaries of the Indus also and may have extended into the northwestern extremities of the Indian Province of Punjab. Located southeast of Karachi, the large delta has been recognised by conservationists as one of the world's most important ecological regions.
The Indus civilization was predated by the first farming cultures in south Asia, which emerged in the hills of what is now called Balochistan, to the west of the IndusValley.
It should be remembered that Indus civilization people, like all peoples in South Asia, built their lives around the monsoon, a weather pattern in which the bulk of a year's rainfall occurs in a four-month period.
In 2600 BC, the IndusValley was verdant, forested, and teeming with wildlife.
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