Disappear into the Thin Air?

Life is full of many ups and downs but undoubtedly the death is the most unkind thing. We certainly love to shun it but as life, death too is real and avoidable. We have to embrace it at certain point of life with two question (when and where). Whenever we lost a near and dear one, we considered it is the biggest tragedy of ones life. However, in our lifetime we have to experience such incident numerous time yet sometime coping with it, is not easy. Time plays biggest role in the healing process but when someone vanish in the thin air without leaving any trail it seems lifelong journey through a dark tunnel. While writing about Mayan calendar I was thinking hard that how come a whole civilization vanished at once but cannot say that without a trail. Most extinct civilization left huge footprint behind yet these missing mysteries are only left as a remainder in the history book with numerous theories. Let us peep into the history and look at the some very famous but extinct civilization. Start from the home, I mean the Indus valley civilization.

Asia

The Indus Valley Civilization

Indus Valley or Harappan Civilization thrived from 3300 to 1300 BC, although the area was settled all the way back to 7000 BC. Despite being one of the largest ancient civilizations, not much is known about the Harappan civilization, mostly because their language has never been deciphered. It is known that they built over one hundred towns and villages including the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, each of which was built with an organized layout, and a complex plumbing system with indoor toilets. Evidence suggests that the Harappan had a unified government and that there were no social classes. There is also no evidence of military activity so it is likely that they lived in peace. They were skilled astronomers and were well versed in agriculture, growing wheat, barley, peas, melons, sesame and cotton and domesticating several animals including cattle and elephants.

By around 1700 BCE, most of the cities were abandoned. In 1953, Sir Mortimer Wheeler proposed that the decline of the Indus Civilization was caused by the invasion of an Indo-European tribe from Central Asia called the "Aryans". As evidence, he cited a group of 37 skeletons found in various parts of Mohenjo-Daro, and passages in the Vedas referring to battles and forts. However, scholars soon started to reject Wheeler's theory. Today, many scholars believe that the collapse of the Indus Civilization was caused by drought and a decline in trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The Babylonians

Babylon was an ancient city state in ancient Mesopotamia (present day Iraq). By the fifth century BC it had grown into an empire, governing most of present day Iraq. The city was a centre of art, diplomacy, science and religion. It was briefly conquered by the Assyrian Empire but threw off its captors and re-established its empire under the great king Nebuchandnezzer. Babylon was later captured by the Persians and later the Macedonians, under Alexander the Great. Babylon once again flourished under Alexander but after his death, in 323 BC, the kingdom was divided up.

The city of Babylon subsequently fell into turmoil and obscurity and was subsequently abandoned. All that remained of Babylon in the modern era was a mount of ruins.

Europe

The Minoan

Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and came to dominate the shores and islands of the Aegean Sea.  It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century by British archaeologist Arthur Evans. Will Durant referred to this civilization as "the first link in the European chain." Axes, of the type that has been attributed to Homo erectus in Africa and made of local quartz rather than flint, have been found at Preveli Gorge in southern Crete.  Minoan civilization is considered to have begun with the palace complexes that appeared in the Bronze Age. The relationships of the Minoans with the more ancient peoples of Crete are unknown.

Around 1450 BC, Minoan culture experienced a turning point due to a natural catastrophe, possibly an earthquake. Another eruption of the Thera volcano has been linked to this downfall, but its dating and implications remain controversial. Several important palaces in locations such as Mallia, Tylissos, Phaistos, Hagia Triade as well as the living quarters of Knossos were destroyed. The palace in Knossos seems to have remained largely intact

North America

The Mayans

The Maya civilization shares many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations due to the high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion that characterized the region. Advances such as writing, epigraphy, and the calendar did not originate with the Maya; however, their civilization fully developed them. Maya influence can be detected from Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and western El Salvador to as far away as central Mexico.  Initially established during the Pre-Classic period, according to the Mesoamerican chronology, many Maya cities reached their highest state of development during the Classic period, and continued throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish.

The Maya centers of the southern lowlands went into decline during the 8th and 9th centuries and were abandoned shortly thereafter. This decline was coupled with a cessation of monumental inscriptions and large-scale architectural construction.

The Mayans are still around, a lot of them are married to people with Spanish heritage, but there are small villages of Mayan people still in Guatemala at the very least.  

Africa

The Ancient Egypt

Egypt the wonders of this ancient culture remained hidden, seemingly lost and forgotten for ever. Then, in the late eighteenth century, Napoleon's invasion of the country sparked an explosion of interest in ancient Egypt that burns as strongly today as ever. The obsession with anything and everything Egyptian has inspired many to dedicate their lives to the search for treasure in Egypt's sands.  Ancient Egypt the land of the Pharaohs. Surely the most inspiring of all the ancient and lost civilizations, as the fascination with the society, the structures and the monuments continues on to this day, thousands of years later. The ancient Egyptians were culture obsessed with death and spent their lives preparing for the cross over to the other side. Though theories abound, the exact answer to the question of how the Egyptians built the pyramids may never be found. The fact mastery of mathematics and science certainly helped, though the labour component of that equation is undecided. The Egyptians were a highly organized society. Slaves and workers were overseen by a ruling class of architects, intellectuals and scribes. The highest order were the priests and scribes (writers). All members of the society, from farmers to scribes, were seen as having equal rights.

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Egyptian pagan culture was in decline after the rise of Christianity and later Islam, but interest in Egyptian antiquity continued in the writings.