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Location

  • Pakistan, Kot Diji
  • geo:27.345724,68.707001

Period or year

  • 1790~ / open

Classification

  • fort
  • Visible

Kot Diji Fort

data access 34270

Kot Diji is an important Indus Harappan civilization site located in the Rohri Hills of Khairpur province of Pakistan. The name means "Fort of the Daughter" and it refers to the 18th century AD Talpur Dynasty fortress, located on the top of an imposing massif above the Indus River. Kot Diji is also the type site for the Kot Diji culture, the earliest phase of the Indus Harappa civilization.
The site has two parts with extensive Indus Harappan occupations from Early through Mature period ( 3500-2000 BC). The upper part is a forty-foot high building, the lower is the settlement below. Artifacts recovered from the site include copper-bronze objects, bangles and arrowheads; etched carnelian and other beads; and numerous terracotta human, bull, and bird effigy figurines.
Extensive excavations were conducted at Kot Diji by F.A. Khan and G.S. Ghurye of the Pakistan Department of Archaeology in the 1950s. The ancient site at Kot Diji was the forerunner of the Indus Harappan Civilization. Its culture is marked by well-made pottery and houses built of mud bricks and stone foundations.
Kot Diji is one of the twenty three major forts of the Talpurs of Sindh. This fort was constructed by Mir Sohrab Khan Talpur. Its construction started in 1803 and was completed in 1830 AD. As many as ninety canon guns of topkhana were deployed on the fort during Talpurs' times.

 

WIKIPEDIA - Kot Diji Fort ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kot_Diji_Fort )

Nearby sites

  • Kot Diji
    Type site of Kot Diji culture (early Harappan phase) of the Indus civilisation, and later Harappan settlement, at the foot of the Rohri hills. Excavated by F.A. Khan (1954-55).
    Pakistan, Kot Diji

Use and reuse

Creators: Entry created by Ludwinski (2017-01-19) , last updated by Julien De Chocqueuse (2025-08-07), with possible contributions by others. CC BY-SA 4.0, metadata CC-0.
Persistent URI: https://vici.org/vici/34270
Data downloads: KML, RDF
Suggested citation: Ludwinski and De Chocqueuse, J., Kot Diji Fort. https://vici.org/vici/34270, accessed 2026-11-12.