The Wonder that was India

The ancient civilization of India grew up in a sharply demarcated sub-continent bounded on the north by the world's largest mountain range — the chain of the Himalayas, which, with its extensions to cast and west, divides India from the rest of Asia and the world. The barrier, liow’ever, was at no time an insuperable one, and at all periods both settlers and traders have found their way over the high and desolate passes into India, while Indians have carried their commerce and culture beyond her frontiers by the same route. India's wall in developing her unique civilization has often been over-rated.