Prachi, about to turn 11, finds herself on an unexpected trip to Dholavira, a fascinating place in Gujarat, India. Even though she wasn’t sure about exploring it at first, the surprise trip piqued her curiosity.

Dholavira is like stepping back 5,000 years in time, to a place where people from the ancient Indus Valley Civilization lived. It was discovered in 1997, along with another ancient place called Lothal, which was a very old dockyard town. Was this on the seaside at that time?

Prachi wanders around Dholavira, and with the help of her guide, Tulsibhai, and his clever Basenji dog, Dumkopf, she learns all about the ancient structures and how people used to live back then. Tulsibhai, Dumkopf and Prachi become really good friends! She even gets to live in a cool round hut called ‘bhunga’ like people of the time.

But Prachi’s mind is buzzing with questions, especially about why these towns suddenly became empty without any signs of earthquakes, tsunamis, or wars. No people, no graves, nothing. It’s like everyone just vanished!

One big mystery that Prachi is super curious about is this strange ten symbol signage over the North Gate of the citadel. Nobody has been able to figure it out yet, not even the smartest archaeologists. But Prachi isn’t giving up. She is determined to crack the code using AI, which is the new super smart computer stuff, and she wants to be the one to solve it!

So, Prachi decides to turn her trip into an exciting research project. Who knows? Maybe she’ll be the one to uncover the secrets of Dholavira and solve the mystery of the ten-symbol signage.