It's fascinating how many relics of ancient civilisation are concentrated in tha...

hugh3 · on May 25, 2011

It's fascinating how many relics of ancient civilisation are concentrated in that part of the world

Not really. It'd be much more fascinating if you found relics of ancient civilisation which weren't concentrated in that part of the world.

kbutler · on May 25, 2011

> It'd be much more fascinating if you found relics of ancient civilisation which weren't concentrated in that part of the world.

The earliest egyptian pyramids were ~2600BC, corresponding with the rise of civilizations in China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Emperor) and Peru (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caral). We've found a lot more iconic relics of Egyptian civilization from that time period, however.

shii · on May 25, 2011

On that line, by far the most intriguing and fascinating structure or relic from ancient human history is the site at Göbekli Tepe[1], in modern day Turkey. Shakes up pretty much every theory and timeline we have constructed on how humans probably developed over time and is much too early to fit in anywhere.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe

meatpeople · on May 26, 2011

Gobekli Tepe is indeed fascinating. There's a good article on it in the latest National Geographic: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/gobekli-tepe/mann-...

ra · on May 25, 2011

Wow! That's truly mind boggling.

Thanks for the great link!