“And yet it’s the oldest continuous civilization”
Excerpt:
The World’s Oldest Civilization
The cradle of civilization is one of the five possible locations where civilization first emerged. According to many experts, civilization began in what is called the Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia), and then spread to other areas due to a nomadic lifestyle. But this traditionally held view is disputed by several scholars and archaeologists. They are of the view that there is no single cradle of civilization, but independent development of civilization occurred in several areas, which were Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley, Shang (Yellow River Valley), and Mesoamerica and Andean South America.
http://historyplex.com/oldest-civilization-in-world
>The World’s Oldest Civilization
You might note I used the word continuous. The first civilization we know of is Sumer, thought there are indications of an earlier civilization in Asia Minor that didn’t leave written records.
However all those civilizations are dead and gone. Replaced by other peoples. China is the only continuous civilization in recorded history. Even Egypt stopped being Egyptian under Islam by the 10th century. The History of Indian civilization doesn’t start until the Aryan invasion which which was after China was established.
1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward,[a] they found a plain in Shinar[b] and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel[c]—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.