Countries that Can Claim They're the World's Oldest
When the first humans began to walk around the planet, the world was a very different place.
There were no borders. There were no maps — let alone lines on maps separating one area from the next.
So making a list of the world's oldest countries is very difficult. Borders are still changing today. However, that hasn't stopped people trying to find an answer to the question: what is the oldest country?
Historians often try to look back at the evidence of the first time a country organized a government — or something like it.
By that measure, Egypt is thought to be one of the oldest countries, perhaps the very oldest. According to tradition, King Menes unified a large part of the area we know now as Egypt, and that was when the country was first formed. Historians believe this happened around the year 3150 BCE.
However, some say Iran is even older. Its first large city is thought to have been built around 3200 BCE, but it's not clear if this is enough to mean it was the beginning of the country's history.
In fact, others might argue that the history of the country as we now know it only began with the Iranian revolution of 1979!
You can see why it's such a difficult question.
There is evidence of very old forms of government in parts of China and Greece, India and Armenia — and many more places — thousands of years ago, but most of these occupied small areas of the present day countries.
This issue is made more complicated by the fact that experts don't usually think city-states, like ancient Athens, or empires like that of Rome should count as countries.
Meanwhile, Guinness World Records has an entry for the world's oldest republic that still exists today: the tiny European state of San Marino.
The state, which is surrounded by Italy, was founded in 301.
