When Alexander left Pella in the spring of 334 BC, the city of Thessaloniki, about 46 km further east, did not exist, meaning that his army marched through the plains to near modern Lagkadàs. From there, we can choose between two roads towards Amphipolis: the freeway north of Lake Koroneia and Lake Volvi or the local road following these lakes' southern banks. Both roads are enjoyable to drive. They give a vivid idea of the terrain crossed by Alexander and before him by his father, King Philip II, during his repeated battles on the Chalcidice peninsula.
Alexander didn't set out from Pella with the entire army, only with his Macedonians. The delegations from the northern Balkan tribes joined him at Amphaxatis near the mouth of the Axios River. In Amphipolis, Parmenion met his king with the contingents from Greece and the Greek mercenaries, where Alexander's fleet connected with his land forces. The entire army that must have counted nearly 30,000 men and 5,000 cavalry, marched towards Abdera and Maroneia, both in Greek hands. After crossing the Hebrus River, Alexander led his troops to Sestos on the Chersonese peninsula in European Turkey, where he arrived twenty days after leaving home. Here he had his first glance at Asia lying across the Dardanelles, known as the Hellespont in antiquity, which formed a significant natural barrier for any invading army.
The crossing of the Hellespont, done in the opposite direction a good century early by the Persian armies of Darius I and Xerxes, cannot be underestimated. The current at the narrowest point is extremely swift as the water is squeezed between the low continental banks.
Here, I pick up history when traveling with Peter Sommer In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great. It's a trip I had the immense pleasure of following by walking, driving, and sailing for almost three weeks, the best days of my life! Peter himself had walked the entire distance from Istanbul to Iskenderun near the Syrian border, searching for Alexander's path, and he read the landscape like no other – a blessing beyond description!
Before crossing the Hellespont, we stop at a plant that processes shells, where I can walk to the very edge of the water to have a first look at the blue landmass of Asia on the other side. A thrilling experience for this must have been what Alexander saw 2,500 years ago. A little further down the Chersonese peninsula, Peter points at a wide flat between the low rolling hills - the plain of Arisbe - where Alexander's army set up camp pending their ferry to the other side. My imagination immediately gets to work, pitching tents, lighting campfires, building stockades where soldiers keep watch, and adding the sound of men talking, yelling, singing, or cursing. What a place!
My crossing is not in style with any of Alexander's 160 triremes that moved back and forth to transport men and beasts over several days, but instead, I take a regular ferry from Kilitbahir to Çanakkale. Once onboard, I look back and forth. Behind me are the remains of Ottoman forts with a proud Turkish flag on top, and ahead of me, the busy quays of the city. This spot was the land where Alexander jumped from his ship in full armor and threw his spear into Asian soil, taking Asia as the spear-won territory from the very start.
Like Alexander,
we first visit Troy, home of Homer's Trojan War, where the young king's heroes had fought and died. Not much remained of the old city in his days, but its history and legends were still very much alive. During my visit, I was led by an expert who had worked closely with Manfred Korfmann. The archaeologist dedicated the last 16 years of his life to Troy. I receive a simplified view of the nine successive layers of Troy built one on top of the other over the 3,000 thousand years of its existence, but I still cannot sort it out. The different layers of the city are labeled with numbers to help the visitor locate each time frame, but then the layers get mixed up or disappear. In the end, all I see is a variety of walls fitting certain buildings at some time in history. The discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann in 1871 is general knowledge, and his so-called Treasure of Priam turned out to be at least one thousand years older. Schliemann had read Homer's Iliad, and so had Alexander, who slept with a copy of the book with annotations made by Aristotle. Both men were inspired by the Iliad, although in very different ways and for different reasons. But in the end, Troy is Troy, the city of Alexander's hero, Achilles.
The guide then takes me to an odd-looking hill with scant remains. This is the spot where the Temple of Athena stood. Here Alexander made a gift of his armor in exchange for some weapons from the Trojan War that could have belonged to Achilles – or at least that is probably what Alexander wanted to believe. I stare at the hardened soil between the stones that barely outline the temple walls, and I wonder whether or not I am standing in the space where Alexander once stood. The temple clings to the cliff's edge, offering an unreal but peaceful view over a plain. In his days, this mainly was a sea.
The cherry on the cake for that day is the most surprising. Our minivan drives off from Troy over local roads and suddenly stops at the end of a dirt road in the middle of what seems to be an orchard. From here, we continue on foot through waist-high barley fields, at whose edges I discover a tumulus. It is the Tomb of Achilles! For a moment, I'm speechless. How exciting! I have seen many tumuli in the landscape earlier today, but hearing that this one is actually the hero's burial site is extremely exciting. According to some, Achilles' tomb also contains his faithful friend Patroclus's remains, making the place even more special as Alexander saw himself as Achilles and his dearest boyhood friend Hephaistion as Patroclus. Both men cut their hair and laid a wreath on this tomb. Afterward, they ran a race around it, stripped of all their clothes. The picture certainly fuels my imagination!
We all rush to the top, where some rough stones crown the summit for no reason. What a place to visit, to touch, to experience. The view this late in the afternoon is blessed with the delicate light of diminishing sunlight, covering the landscape with a soft glow. I can actually see a good stretch of the seashore. Peter kindly pinpoints the very bay where the Greek fleet was hidden from view by the Trojans while awaiting the city gates to be opened by the soldiers hidden inside the famous Trojan Horse. So much history has happened on these grounds! What a place to be.
From here, Alexander rejoined his troops, which had all crossed the Hellespont into Asia by now. He soon would have to face the Persian enemy (see: The Battle of the Granicus), and I'll pick up his traces tomorrow.
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