And now let us go to the opposite end of the world.
现在让我们来到世界的另一端,
To India and then to China, so that we can find out what was going on in these vast lands at the time of the Persian wars.
来到印度,然后去中国,这样我们可以知道波斯战争时期,在这些广阔的土地上发生了什么事。
Like Mesopotamia, India also had a very ancient civilization, and at about the same time as the Sumerians were holding sway at Ur,
像美索不达米亚一样,印度也有非常古老的文化,大致在苏美尔人在乌尔城强大起来的同一时期,
that is, around 2,500 BC – there was a mighty city in the valley of the Indus.
也就是在公元前2500年左右——在印度河谷有一座大城市。
The Indus is a great river which flows through what is Pakistan today.
印度河是一条大河,流经今天的巴基斯坦。
It had well-drained streets, canals, granaries and workshops, and was called Mohenjo Daro,
这座城市里有排水良好的街道、水渠、粮仓和工场,它叫摩亨佐·达罗,
and until its discovery in the 1920s nobody had even dreamt of its existence.
在19世纪20年代它没被发现之前,没有人想过它的存在。
When it was excavated, things came to light that were as remarkable as any found in the rubble mounds at Ur.
当它被挖掘出来时,大家才知道还有和覆盖了乌尔城的废墟一样奇特的地方。