Some of the oldest villages in the world were built along the Indus River over 5,000 years ago.
At first, almost everyone was a farmer. As farmers got better at growing things, some people could do other kinds of work. They became merchants, traders, and craftsmen. Villages turned into towns, and some towns turned into cities. By 2500 B.C., the Indus civilization was large enough to have two big cities. One was Mohenjo-Daro. The other was Harappa, 400 miles to the northeast.