Preserving history: Harappa, Fort Derawar sites to be conserved

Work on Derawar Fort will hopefully start in 30-45 days, officials say

MULTAN:

The Punjab Archaeology Department has completed nearly 38 per cent of work on the construction of a boundary, upgrading facilities and conservation work of the Harappa archaeological site, Archaeology Sub Divisional Officer Ghulam Muhammad said on Tuesday.

The SDO said that the construction of the site’s boundary wall had been pending for decades because the department did not have legal possession of excavated land attached to the museum. The problem was solved after the federal and the Punjab governments released almost Rs194 million to acquire the land, he said.

Ghulam Muhammad said Rs85 million had been allocated to build a six-foot high fence and 3.5 kilometre long boundary wall for the site. The 1.3 kilometre long walkway-track at the archaeological mound was being repaired and tough tiles were being used to pave the area in front of the Harappa Museum.

The SDO said Rs33 million was being spent on the conservation and restoration of archaeological remains, an extension of the museum gallery, maintenance and levelling of lawns, installation of security lights on museum premises, signboards for local and foreign tourists, provision of safe drinking water and benches, improvement of toilets and washrooms, to build a canteen and to purchase furniture for the rest house.

Ghulam Muhammad said the Harrapa site spanned 175 acres and nearly 50,000 people visited it each month.

He said Minister for Tourism Rana Mashhood had instructed the department to install a special entrance gate carrying motifs and features of some of the ancient gates excavated from the site. He said two large unicorn statues would also be placed at the site.

The Harappa site in Sahiwal district has yielded relics from the Bronze Age. The once fortified city was part of the Indus Valley Civilization, centred in Sindh and the Punjab. The city is believed to have had as many as 23,500 residents and occupied around 150 hectares (370 acres) during the mature Harappan phase (2600-1900 BC).APP

Fort Derwar

Officials of the Archaeology Department said under a Rs6 million conservation project, a 19-feet wide portion of the boundary wall and the 62-feet wide bastion of the Derawar Fort would be restored up to a height of 75-feet.

They said the amount had been released to the Archaeology Department. After technical sanction of the scheme, the tender process will start, they said. Conservation work should, hopefully, begin within 30 or 45 days, the officials said.

They said three bastions and two segments of the fort’s 80-feet high and 8-9 feet thick boundary wall had been badly damaged due to extreme weather and time. Though the damage had been reported a while back, funds were hard to come by, they said.

The Bahawalpur Archaeology SDO said that the east-south bastion, a 32-foot long portion of one of the walls, a 19-foot long portion of another wall along Derawar Fort were in desperate need of restoration work.

“A portion of the wall will be renovated with the funds released recently and the remaining work will be put off for when we get funds again,” the official said.

The fort is located at the edge of Cholistan desert in Bahawalpur district. A report of the Punjab Archaeology Department says there has been a fort at Derawar for nearly 5,000 years to protect the trade route from central Asia to the subcontinent.    The fort, as it exists today, was captured by the Abassi family from Raja Rawal Singh of Jaisalmer in 1733 – around the time the fort was built, the report says.

The fort is supported by 39 enormous buttresses (bastions), with four on each corner, nine on three sides – West, South and North – and eight on the eastern side.     The fort is now a tourist attraction and is a nice place for a picnic. 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2015.