The Greeks were pretty much the most prolific civilization in the ancient world. While our high school history books talk about the Greeks from Greece, no one mentions the Indo-Greek Kingdom, which took over from he Greco-Bactrians in modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. They ruled the last two centuries B.C., and their style merged the aesthetics of both Greek and Indian art.

This Kingdom was notable for two things; the first was that they were Greeks that didn’t believe in the Greek pantheon of gods, but were Buddhists. The second, was that they actively traded with China, due to the unique alloys that their money was made out of. There’s also speculation that India-Greek artists were sent to China to teach their artisans how to build statues and that it’s their influence and hands that led to the creation of the Terracotta Army.

They were eventually ousted from their lands by the nomadic Yuezhi, as well as the native Indians.