It was during the Bronze Age that followed the Neolithic age that the foundations were laid for a modern culture in India. It was the period when urbanized centers developed along the banks of the River Indus and its tributaries. This urban center of civilization, known as the Indus Valley Civilization, is one of the oldest civilizations in the planet. Flourished during 2500-1700 B.C., the Indus Valley civilization developed into a major seat of human endeavors from several centers of activity. It had extended over a large area touching the Mohanjo-Daro in the Sindh Province of present-day Pakistan, Harappa, in the Multan District of the West Punjab again in the present-day Pakistan, Kaalibangan in Rajasthan, Ropad in Punjab, Lothal and Dholavira in Gujarat, Rakhigarhi in Haryana – all in the present day India. The excavations were first made in Harappa and Mohanjo-Daro and it was why this wonderful urban culture came to be known as Indus Valley Civilization. But in fact it was a great civilization that extended beyond the Indus Valley, from Gujarat in the south up to the northern borders of Afghanistan – stretching for more than 1.200 kilometers from north to south and more than 1,600 kilometers from west to east. Highly significant for this civilization were the geographic condition of the region, including the network of the Indus and its tributaries, that provided most favorable conditions for the development of material culture and economics, and for the foundation of urban settlements – centers of trade and craftsmanship. These settlements have also been discovered in the upper reaches of the rivers Ganges or Ganga and the Yamuna (now called the Jumna).