The buildings so far unearthed in the Harappan cities fall into three main classes: (i) dwelling houses, (ii) larger buildings, (iii) public baths, granaries, etc.

There is much variation in the size of dwelling houses. The smallest have no more than two rooms, while the largest are so vast as to rank almost as palaces. The buildings were mostly plain, without any recession or plasters. Only in the floor of one house at Kalibangan ornamental bricks were used. Probably the verandahs were decorated with wooden screws which have now perished. The ground floor of a small house measured 8 x 9 m and of the large one was double its size.

The houses were separated from one another by about a foot, probably to avoid dispute with the neighbour, and the space in between was bricked up at either end to prevent the thief from scaling the walls. The walls were very thick which suggests that some of the houses were double storeyed- Square holes on the walls remind that the upper floors and roof rested on wooden beams.

The roofs were made of reed matting-and then covered with thick coating mud. The matting was tied to the wooden beams with cords-some impressions of the cord are still noticeable. A few staircases of burnt bricks have, no doubt, been discovered but, as a rule, wooden staircases were used which have mostly perished.

The stairways had high narrow steps, sometimes 38 cm high and 13 cm wide to economize space.