Quest to Find the Oldest Country in the World

Human civilization spans over thousands of years and several great civilizations rose and just vanished as if they never existed. History records great empires to have existed in China, Egypt, Mesopotamia (present day Iraq), Persia, India, etc. that stretched far and wide and were considered to be great in their own respect. Now, each of the above mentioned countries were more like nation states which cannot be called countries because today the term country denoted something different than what was prevalent then.