As a young lad in History Class in Primary (Elementary) School, I was captivated by the military brilliance and extensive conquests of Alexander the Great.
Alexander the Great, 356 BC – 323 BC, was a King of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father King Philip II in 336 BC at the age of 20 and by the time Alexander the Great died at the age of 32, he had conquered land across three continents and ruling countries from Egypt. to Turkey to India in 12 short years.
Alexander was tutored by the great philosopher Aristotle until he was 16 years old.
Alexander the Great founded more than twenty cities, the most prominent being Alexandria in Egypt.
During Alexander’s stay in Egypt, he founded Alexandria, which later became the prosperous capital of the Ptolemaic Kingdom after his death.
In 1998, the avid Historian in me made a trip to Alexandria, Egypt to explore the port city that Alexander the Great was named after. I stayed at the Sheraton Montazah Hotel.
Me at Qaitbay Citadel, Alexandria, Egypt (1998), one of the most important forts on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (above image).
The Mamluk sultan al-Ashraf Abu al-Nar Qaitbay built it between 882 AH / 1477 AD and 884 AH / 1479 AD over the ruins of Alexandria’s Lighthouse. It served as Alexandria’s defense against naval attacks.
In 334 BC, Alexander led his army into Asia to fulfill his father King Philip’s ambition of conquering the Persian Empire, the largest in the world at that time. He then conquered Turkey, the Middle East, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. At which point, his army was weary and rebelled and had to make their journey back towards Macedon.
Unfortunately, on the journey back, Alexander died mysteriously (above image) in the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon, some say it was either he was poisoned or died of severe fever.
Alexander’s body was taken to Egypt was said to have been entombed, laid in a gold anthropoid sarcophagus that was filled with honey, placed in a gold casket, in Alexandria. His where Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Augustus and Pompey came to pay their respects at the tomb.
19th-century depiction of Alexander the Great’s funeral procession, based on a description by Diodorus Siculus (above image).
Alexander the Great’s body mysteriously disappeared around the fifth century and was never been found.
