The World Population Review published an article in which it was mentioned that countless nations and countries have come and gone over the millennia, but some of them still exist today.

Although national borders, ruling governments and capitals have changed, these countries have survived to the present day. The list includes Greece, China, Portugal, France, Japan, Iran, San Marino, Ethiopia, Egypt. For various reasons, it is possible to say exactly which of the ten countries is the oldest. Western Armenia is also in fourth place in the list of oldest countries. According to our research our country is even older.

It should be noted that Western Armenia is found in old world maps and history books. Sometimes as an independent state, sometimes divided between neighboring empires, the name Western Armenia is always mentioned, from ancient Greek and Roman maps until today.

The oldest geographical map of the world that has come down to us is the Babylonian map, depicted on a clay tablet. The map was found on the territory of Iraq in the 19th century. It is now kept in the British Museum.

The Babylonian clay tablet dates back to BC. In the 6th century On this map, Babylon is in the center of the world, and to the northwest, Western Armenia and Syria. Around them is the “bitter river”. It turns out that Western Armenia is the only one of the modern countries depicted on the ancient world map. This map is followed by atlases made by the ancient Greeks, on each of which Western Armenia is marked as the center of civilization, stretching from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea. In the geography book of Ptolemy, who lived in the 1st-2nd century AD, there are 8,000 names of rivers, towns and villages, of which 167 belong to Western Armenia.

Western Armenia is also considered the center of the world on the map of the Greek historian Herodotus, on which, however, Marastan (Atrpatakan) is indicated instead of Babylon and Assyria. Armenia from coast to coast is also depicted on the third ancient map – Strabo’s atlas.