Afghanistan, where history keeps repeating itself

The war in Afghanistan is no longer making headline news since the U.S. withdrew its troops in a sudden and short-term operation. What’s new, we might ask. The answer is nothing. 

Alexander spent three years of his life in Central Asia fighting an ever-elusive enemy of tribes that no longer fought each other but joined forces against the invader. In the 5th century, the Huns wreaked havoc; Genghis Khan, at the head of the Mongols, rampaged the region in the 13th century; Tamerlane repeated the operation a century later; and the Mughal dynasty followed suit in the 16th century. Even Islam spreading brotherhood among men could not achieve any result. The more recent invasions by Britain in 1839-1842 and 1870-1880, the Soviet Union in 1979-1989, and the United States in 2001-2021 only repeated their predecessors’ fatal outcomes.  

Who are we to call Alexander’s campaign in Central Asia a failure when later invaders with far more sophisticated means did not fare any better? Alexander was a military genius, and no one has been able to surpass him – certainly not here in Afghanistan. 

Those looking for a complete analysis on the situation in Afghanistan will find useful information in Frank Holt’s book Into the Land of Bones, Alexander the Great in Afghanistan. The author draws an excellent comparison of Alexander’s achievements with those of later invaders. He asserts that the only way to rule the country should imply that the conqueror subdues every warlord because one single exception would erase all previous successes. Isn’t that precisely what Alexander tried to achieve? 

The French archaeologists who worked in Afghanistan early in the last century, upon the invitation of King Mohammed Zahir, were confronted with the double face of the local population. During the day, they gathered around to look and give a helping hand, while at night, they would destroy the statues and steal the precious artifacts. Tribal elderly, generally strong Islamic believers, destroyed many human statues as soon as they were unearthed. Altogether, many unique artifacts were destroyed overnight or disappeared on their way to the Museum in Kabul (see: Le trésor perdu des rois d’Afghanistan by Philippe Flandrin). Typically for Afghanistan, not even the king could overrule the tribe's elders! 

Under these circumstances, it is impressive that the gold treasure from Tillya Tepe, a tomb hill in the northwest corner of Afghanistan, has survived. The content of these six tombs was barely rescued when the Soviet Union entered Afghanistan in 1979 and safely transferred to the Museum in Kabul (see: Bactrian Gold, the Hidden Treasures from the Museum of Kabul). The Museum suffered greatly from the ensuing civil wars and was repeatedly plundered, and artifacts were stolen. The worst, however, was still to come when, in 2001, the Taliban decided not only to destroy the huge Buddha statues at Bamyan but also to annihilate the 2,500 statues and reliefs of the Museum. However, a handful of brave Afghans rescued the Tillya Tepe treasure and locked it away in the vaults of the Presidential Palace. They managed to keep the place a secret. By 2004 the government of Afghanistan decided that the situation was safe enough to bring the gold artifacts out in the open again, but the Museum in Kabul was no longer fit to shelter this precious collection. Based on their earlier collaboration, they contacted the Musée Guimet in Paris and, together, they agreed to send these rich finds on a traveling tour around the world. 

Today, with the ruling Taliban, the country is still dominated by its warlords, who consistently cling to their traditions and mistrust all foreign intrusion.

Merv, Alexandria Margiana

The origins of Merv seem to go back to Cyrus the Great, who founded the city in the 6th century BC. As Margu, it is mentioned in the Bisutun inscription (see: The Bisutun relief of King Darius I), meaning that it was one of the many satrapies ruled by the Achaemenids.

It is still uncertain whether Alexander took Merv in today’s Turkmenistan, although the area of Margiana became part of his empire. When he was in Central Asia, he may or may not have conquered the city. According to some theories, it was Craterus who founded the town. If this were the case, Alexandria Margiana would be the first and only “Alexandria” founded in Alexander’s absence. A questionable assumption. If Alexander went to Merv, the only plausible time would be while he was in Bactra, in modern Afghanistan. Pending confirmation and further excavations, this question remains unanswered (see: Alexander in Bukhara).

In any case, after the king’s death, Alexandria Margiana became the capital of the Seleucid Empire. It was his son, Antiochus I Soter, who expanded the site and built the fortress of Gyaur Gala. He named it after himself, Antiochia Margiana.

The rulers of the later Graeco-Bactrian Empire, the Parthians, the Kushans, and the Sassanids all recognized the importance of its strategic location. Before the arrival of Islam, Merv was renowned for its Buddhist monasteries and stupas.

Its defensive walls were almost eight kilometers long, fortified by sturdy towers. Through one of the four entrance gates, traders and other visitors would access the clean streets divided into quarters among the branches of the Murghab River and its canals. The principal buildings were mosques and madrasas, libraries, and bathhouses. The marketplace was centrally located and well-organized. Under the Seljuk sultans, Merv was enhanced with a palace and several administrative buildings.

As a significant stopover on the prosperous Silk Road, Merv was a welcome oasis full of gardens and orchards surrounded by richly cultivated lands amidst the barren Karakum Desert. Some sources tell us that around 1150 AD, Merv was the largest city in the world. Merchants from as far as India, Iraq, and China would have crowded the narrow streets and spent the night in one of the many caravanserais. Besides the trade of silk, Merv was also famous for the high-quality cotton that was grown in the nearby fields.

Unfortunately, Genghis Khan razed the city to the ground, killing all its 700,000 inhabitants. The many dams and dykes that supported an efficient network of canals and reservoirs were forever destroyed. Genghis Khan and his Mongols annihilated this lifeblood so thoroughly that Merv never truly recovered, in spite of the numerous attempts to rebuild and resettle the city over the centuries.

By 1888, Merv was entirely abandoned. George Curzon, who was the Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905, visited the remains at that time. He describes the city as “Very decrepit and sorrowful looked those wasting walls of sun-dried clay, these broken arches and tottering towers; but there is magnificence in their very extent and a voice in the sorrowful squalor of their ruin.”

Merv today exposes, in fact, four separate walled cities. The oldest settlement from the Achaemenid times is Erkgala, whereas the Hellenistic and Sassanid capital Gyaur Gala is built around the Erkgala fort. The Abbasid/Seljuk city is Soltangala, and the largest as it sits on the edge of Gyaur Gala. Just south lies the smallest town, Abdyllahangala, which was founded by the descendants of Tamerlane. 

The archaeologists are clearly facing a daunting task. A joint team from Turkmenistan and the UK worked here from 1992 to 2000. A year later, a new collaboration was started between the Turkmen authorities and the University College London. It will be fascinating to learn if they ever retrieve some relics of Alexander’s short passage in the area.

[Pictures from The Guardian]

Le trésor perdu des rois d’Afghanistan by Philippe Flandrin

Le trésor perdu des rois d’Afghanistan (ISBN 2-268-03977-3) translates into The Lost Treasure of the Kings of Afghanistan and is written by Philippe Flandrin, journalist and war correspondent.

This book is the best work about the history of Afghanistan. In a most pleasant and comprehensive way, the auteur manages to mix Afghanistan’s recent history with that of antiquity. After an introduction to the times of Cyrus the Great and Alexander the Great, he seeks and finds the transition to the days of Graeco-Buddhist art.

The catalyst agent in opening up the country of Afghanistan in recent times was, in fact, its last king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, who ruled for forty years. Unhappy about the British interference in the 19th and early 20th centuries, he turned to France for archaeological expertise. He had studied in France, and this created a natural bond. The king was deposed in a coup in 1973, and soon afterward, the Soviets invaded the now Republic of Afghanistan. Political changes always prevail in the way of life in any country. The archaeological teams soon withdrew from Afghanistan because tribal powers were still powerful. We all remember how the Taliban “liberated” the country from the Soviets and then imposed their own religious ideas.

Philippe Flandrin takes us by the hand and leads us through the mazes of Afghanistan’s stirring history as it has been forged over the centuries. People like Cyrus, Alexander, Genghis Khan, and Tamerlane have left their marks, followed by Buddhist and Chinese travelers on the Silk Road.

He starts his book with the first discoveries of sites like Ai-Khanoum, Tillya Tepe, and Hadda, including the hardships the archaeologists encountered and the opposition from the local people – generally strong Islamic believers who smashed and destroyed many of the human statues as soon as they were unearthed. Tribal elderly had their say, as even the king could not overrule or control them. Many wondrous finds have thus disappeared before reaching Kabul. Half of the artifacts that made it were entered into the newly built Museum of Kabul, and the other half were shipped off to France, finding a home at the Musée Guimet in Paris. And luckily so, because soon after the Soviet occupation, the Museum of Kabul was plundered. The gorgeous statues from the Gandhara era were destroyed, and the smaller pieces slowly but surely found their way to the illegal markets, mainly through Peshawar in Pakistan. This procedure is detailed in the second part of this book - an unfortunate episode indeed.

This exciting book's third and last part discusses the world of legal and illegal art trading worldwide. The conclusion is that most of Afghanistan's precious finds have vanished from Ai-Khanoum, Begram, Tillya Tepe, Hadda, and other key excavation sites. The sites proper have been trampled or bulldozed, and all that remains of the Museum of Kabul is a skeleton building; people are still determining what became of its rich collection. The gold, jewels, and coins from the excavations had been locked up safely in the vaults of the Central Bank in Kabul. It was a miracle to find these pieces intact when a team of local and international experts and archaeologists laid eyes on them in 2004. This treasure was luckily saved and is now part of an exhibition traveling around the world as it would not be safe in its homeland  (see: Bactrian Gold, The Hidden Treasures from the Museum of Kabul).

It is a sad story that clearly illustrates how the Afghans have been nearly entirely stripped of their history – a story much less known than the destructive path the IS has left behind in neighboring Iraq and Syria. Still, the drama in Afghanistan is at least as devastating and radical.

Afrasiab excavations: remains of a monumental public building

To my surprise, excavations at Afrasiab (ancient Greek Maracanda or modern Samarkand in Uzbekistan) by the Franco-Uzbek Archaeological Mission have revealed the burnt remains of a monumental public building from the early Hellenistic period. Based on the charred remains of millet and barley, it has been established that this must have been a granary for the Greek garrison of Samarkand.

This square building made of mud bricks is characteristic of Hellenistic times. Archaeologists have determined that it was destroyed by a violent fire, which has baked the bricks and the cereals stored inside, transforming the content into a multicolored ash dust. The heat was so fierce that the bricks have intensively hardened and, at the same time have vitrified the soil as well as the lower parts of the walls, which at the same time led to their excellent preservation.

This granary was found at a depth of 8.5 meters, underneath successive occupation layers all the way to the mosque that was under construction in 1220 when Genghis Khan massacred a great deal of the population and destroyed Samarkand’s irrigation canals. This vast complex was divided into eight separate rooms of 11.5x5.5m, each set in two rows of four. Much attention was given to the construction of these storage rooms, whose walls were made of mud brick squares of 38x38cm and probably stood 2.5 meters high of which today some 2 meters are still preserved. It seems that the roof of this granary simply collapsed at the time of the fire, together with the now parched remains of the supporting beams.

It is clear that this building was used to store perishable food. Remains of millet and barley have been identified in four of these rooms, where millet was simply thrown on the unpaved floor. Analysis has shown that this was the so-called panicum miliaceum, i.e., a common millet generally found between northern China and western Europe and is grown on irrigated land. It is a cereal that does not germinate, meaning that it can easily be stored for up to ten years. This millet played a fundamental role in people’s food staples in Central Asia and would have been ideally used in garrison life or as a life-saving food in case of siege. It is evident that barley and millet were the major food supplies for soldiers, although in Achaemenid times, the barley-gruel was eaten by soldiers and slaves as well as horses, and the rations were counted. The barley, however, is thought to have been used more as fodder for the horses rather than to feed humans, and it seems to have been stored in sacks. In many places, the floors and the walls were covered with ashes in shades of green, blue, orange, red, yellow, and grey, which may refer to other kinds of food - yet unidentified. It has been calculated that the granary of Afrasiab could hold as much as 75 tons of cereals.

Further investigation has established that the fire was a very fierce one, and researchers don’t exclude a possible explosion caused by a high concentration of gas, as we know to happen in modern grain silos. There are also indications that attempts were made to extinguish the fire or to contain it; by letting the roof collapse, they hoped to kill the fire – to no avail, as the blaze devastated the entire storage building.

Typical for early Greek occupation in Afrasiab is the use of square bricks as in the granary, which matches similar bricks found in the inner gallery of the ancient rampart and the posterns of the so-called gate of Bukhara. Till recently, no traces of Greek residential houses have been found, although their presence has been suggested by Greek ceramics found in different locations surveyed by previous Soviet research. In fact, this granary is the first proof of the earliest Greek inhabitants of Afrasiab. Future excavations will certainly contribute to a better understanding of Hellenistic Samarkand.

This information is completing my earlier post: Afrasiab, ancient Samarkand, where I’m concentrating on Alexander spending the winter of 328/327 BC within these walls and on the circumstances leading to the murder of Cleitos.

[Pictures from Academia.org]

The Minaret of Djam by Freya Stark

The Minaret of Djam, an Excursion in Afghanistan (ISBN 9781848853133) is another typical book by Freya Stark, written once again in the style that is so much her own, with vivid depictions – rather paintings – of the scenery around her. With a minimum of words, she manages to draw a full-scale picture. This time, she takes on a trip through the very heart of Afghanistan in search of the Minaret of Djam, roughly halfway between Kabul and Herat. It seems as if she travelled in a time beyond time, most probably before the Soviet invasion of 1979.

She writes most pleasantly, taking the reader by the hand to uncover the secrets of the hidden landscapes and remote populations. She was quite an adventurous lady whom I admire greatly, especially when you realize that she travelled in times when roads were still very primitive and when definitely no lady would venture on her own into those remote corners of the world. However, before the Soviet invasion, the British were still seen as frequent travellers over there. Strangely enough, Afghanistan was still a pleasant place to be.

In any case, this is an adventure by itself, for few people have ever seen this minaret, and still fewer have crossed the area. She manages to make it through the summer heat in a Land Rover that serves as sleeping quarters under most primitive conditions. Still, she always remains optimistic and blessed with that British phlegm that makes it all bearable and possible. An admirable woman on a worthy journey, to say the least.

But in the end, it is all about the Minaret of Djam, the second-tallest brick minaret in the world. Set in the remoteness of the Afghan slopes between the two highest peaks of the Safed Kuh, 3525 and 3416 meters. The minaret stands alone, dressed in brick color against the perfect blue sky, which I now can imagine in the light of my travels through Uzbekistan, where similar intricate stone patterns have also been used. It belongs to the fertile years of Islamic art from the 11th and 12th centuries and must be quite a sight. I’m surprised that she didn’t climb the one hundred and eighty steps of the double staircase to the top. I would – I think. She mentions a nearby inscription by Sultan Ghiyath al-Dunya, the fifth sultan of the Ghurid dynasty, who ruled from 1163 till 1203, and that is all we know of its history.

After finishing this most enjoyable and exciting book, I needed to investigate the Ghurid Dynasty further, as it is otherwise totally unknown to me. It turns out that it was very short-lived, existing for just over sixty years, although they had ruled an empire stretching from eastern Persia all the way to northern India. They even conquered Bamyan and Balkh as well as territories beyond the Oxus River. Their capital city was Firuzbuh, i.e., where this Minaret is still standing. I find it exciting to learn that they lost territories to the Khwarizm, which I heard for the first time on my recent trip to Uzbekistan! It was once again Genghis Khan who finally destroyed the cities and probably killed the entire population. Amazingly, the Minaret of Djam has survived!

[picture from the UNESCO site]

To make this story complete, I would encourage everybody to read the article “Minaret and Archaeological Remains of Jam,” in which UNESCO puts the minaret on the list of World Heritage in Danger.

Discovering Forts Alexander might have known (Central Asia 9)

[8 - In Spring 328 BC, Alexander splits up his army in five sections. Hephaistion cleans up the Panj River Valley, Ptolemy the Vaksh River Valley, Perdiccas the Karfernigan, Coenus the Surkhan, and Alexander marches to Maracanda, where his generals will join him afterwards.]

Alexander used his winter in Bactra to evaluate the complex resistance he has been facing in Sogdiana. Killing Bessus had made him King of Persia, but as it turned out, not the ruler of Sogdiana, where Spitamenes and his warlords led a full-scale guerrilla war. Alexander had to learn to face this new kind of warfare and had to make drastic changes in his tactics and in his army set-up. He decided, once across the Oxus, to split his forces into five columns, as each of them would mop up the valleys between the outstretched fingers of the Pamir Mountains. His faithful friend Hephaistion would handle the Panj River Valley on today’s border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan; Ptolemy would take care of the Vaksh River Valley originating in Kyrgyzstan as the Kyzyl-Suu, passing Dushanbe and emptying into the Amu Darya; Perdiccas would lead his men along the Karfernigan River, the longest of Kyrgyzstan and last tributary to join the Amu Darya; Coenus would subdue the people along the Surkhan River in southern Uzbekistan, also running into the Amu Darya; and Alexander would ride to Maracanda to rendezvous with all his generals afterwards. Unfortunately, historians only relate stories about Alexander, dismissing any details about the accomplishments of his generals.

They took several forts perched high amidst the Central Asian plains, roughly east of Derbent on the southern edges of the Pamir Mountains into western Tajikistan.  When I am in Khiva, I have the opportunity to visit some of such forts. It is my chance to get an idea of what this episode must have meant in Alexander’s life. The road takes me north, on the other side of the main road, Urgench-Tashkent near Beruni, towards Bostan. This is still within reach of the Oxus and its irrigation canals, watering the cotton fields. We make an unexpected stop alongside the road for a steady look at the Kyzyl Kala, i.e., the Red Fort, just beyond the fluffy cotton stacks. It is a near-square construction of 65 x 63 meters that once stood two stories high - not difficult to guess even from this distance. Soldiers from neighboring Toprak Kala were stationed there, I’m told, spending alternatively one week inside these walls, one week at Toprak Kala, and one week working in the fields. Time-wise, it belongs to the 1st-8th century as part of the Kingdom of Khorezm.

Now Khorezm deserves some explanation, for most of us have never heard of this kingdom, which may find its origin in the fact that it goes by many different spellings: Chorasmia, Khwarezmia, Khwarizm, Khwarazm, Khorezm, Khoresm, Khorasam, Harezm, Horezm, and Chorezm. Pick your choice!

The land was inhabited as early as 3,000 BC and is said to have been colonized by an Iranian hero in 1292 BC. When Alexander arrived here some thousand years later, it was governed by the Persian Achaemenids together with Bactria and Carmania. Arrian, in his Anabasis, mentions that the king of the Chorasmians, Pharasmanes, visited Alexander at his court in Bactra in great style, “with 1,500 mounted troops. He told Alexander that his territory had common frontiers with the Colchians and the Amazon women, and that if Alexander should ever contemplate an invasion of those countries with the object of reducing the various peoples in that part of the world as far as the Black Sea, he was willing to act as his guide and to provide all the necessary supplies for his army.” It is one of those paragraphs we tend to dismiss amidst all the events Alexander is being confronted with in 328 BC. It is evident that he had no intention at all to march back west, as his plans for India were by now drawn up. So “he thanked Pharasmanes for his offer and concluded a pact of friendship with him, adding that an expedition to the Black Sea was not at the moment convenient…” [Arrian, Book 4, 15-16]. This being said, it is clear that this Kyzyl Kala survived the largely independent days of the later Parthian and Seleucian dynasties, and those of the Sassanid rulers as well. How exciting to stand in a place with such rich history! Of course, Islam took over, and leaders like Genghis Khan and Tamerlane swarmed down over these lands as well, but that is beyond this part of the story.

Back to my own itinerary, the landscape soon becomes very desolate, and that is no surprise since I’m in the middle (well, middle…) of the Kyzylkum, the Red Desert, which I first discovered from my precarious airplane. We drive on for quite a while as distances are proportionate to the land, as always. I enjoy the comforts of an air-conditioned bus, while Alexander and his army had to trudge through these sands and spiny shrubs on foot. Sturdy men, no doubt.

Toprak Kala, meaning Clay-Fort, lies in the middle of the Ellik Kala oasis as part of a city of which I see no remains. This fort is much larger than the previous one, 500 x 350 meters, with walls reaching up to 8-9 meters, but I find the site in poor condition; the earthen walls have suffered badly from eons of exposure and erosion. One of the wooden doorposts still carries an inscription, but I cannot even figure out in what language it is written. Russian archaeologists have counted three hundred rooms in the palace on the northwestern side, discovering wall frescoes and polychrome statues of Zoroastrian gods as well as documents from the royal archives written in the Khorezm language (1st-4th century). A few vaulted corridors are, in fact, the most striking elements that remain today.

About twenty kilometres further down the road, the fort of Ayaz Kala stamps its presence on the flat landscape. It was part of a series of forts very much like the Roman Limes, built to protect the agricultural lands against the nomads’ invasions. From the top of its one-hundred-meter-high hill, it has a commanding view over the surrounding land. It measures 180 x 150 meters and dates from the 4th/early 3rd century BC, meaning this is the kind of fort Alexander must have been confronted with. And I am going to climb to the top, plowing through the loose sands as if walking in the dunes, what an experience!

Once I have reached the inside of the fort, I’m totally taken by surprise as it has not just one outer wall but two walls with in between them a vaulted passageway approximately two meters wide. Each wall is about ten meters high and at its base at least 2.2 to 2.4 meters thick. What a defense that must have been! During the 3rd century AD, these walls were enhanced and fortified by forty-five semicircular watchtowers at 10-15 meter intervals. As a fort, this construction was used till the first century, but after that it remained a safe haven for the local population till far into the Middle Ages. The flat top of this hill has been stretched to its limits and covers an area fit for a small town. The entrance gate was built in the shape of a labyrinth and was consequently highly defensible. How ingenious!

Under me, between this fort and the road, lies a lower hill of about forty meters high, with on its top, another, much smaller fort. This was the residence of King Afrig and was at the time connected by a suspension bridge to the next rocky outcrop crowned with a citadel to defend the king’s palace. This is all more recent, 7th/8th century AD, and functioned until the 13th century. These walls are clearly round and oval in shape, quite original, I would say. From what I hear, the movie about Genghis Khan was shot at this location – has anyone seen it?

The view alone is worth the climb. The wind feels like a storm up here, and I’m not surprised to learn that the locals called this place Windy Fort. I’m still within the flat valley floor of the Oxus, and in the distance I can see the blue waters of Akcha-Kul Lake on one side and to the left the sharp outlines of yet another fort. This one, shaped as a parallelogram of 260 x 180 meters, dates from the 1st/2nd century AD, but remains in the north-eastern corner are said to be much older, 5th/4th century BC. So, yet another fort from Alexander’s days! The outside walls were not as thick as up here, a mere 7.5 meters, and the watchtowers were entirely circular. According to the archaeologists, the fort was mainly used during the 1st century as a garrison, but it may also have served as a shelter for the tribes’ leaders or even as a temporary residence for the local population in case of trouble. Those who want to learn more about these forts can visit this interesting link on the UNESCO website.

It goes without saying that this entire setting in this specific desert area is giving me a precious insight into the forts Alexander the Great had to besiege during his campaign. Besides, who dares to say he never was here? It is not because nothing is put down in our history books that nothing has happened here …

Click here to read Episode 10 of Central Asia 

Why Alexander the Great?

People repeatedly ask me: Why are you so interested in Alexander the Great? Why Alexander? What makes him so unique? As it sounds foolish to say, "I don't know," I seriously thought about the matter.

As can be expected, the answer is not simple. The same as when being asked, "Why do you love your wife or your husband?" There is no clear-cut reason; in fact, there are several or several combinations. So too when it comes to my friend, Alexander the Great, for I consider him a friend, someone I know intimately, although he lived two thousand three hundred years ago!

To say the least, he is a fascinating figure. We know his actions rather well from what has been written by ancient historians, but not his personality, which modern historians try to unravel to the bone sometimes, with the most absurd assumptions. In my mind, however, this is the most intriguing side that keeps me digging ever deeper.

I can't remember when or how exactly my passionate interest in Alexander the Great started. I may not have heard of him until my early years in high school, and that is about when I craved everything Greek and Roman.

The walls above my bed were filled with pictures from calendars showing remains of temples and theaters from all over the ancient world – I knew them by heart and still do.

Those were the days when Ben-Hur raced from one movie theater to the next, with me in his wake! I lost track of how many times I watched the movie. It was not only the story, but the setting, the landscapes, the chariots, the circus, the furniture, the ships and galleys, the uniforms and marches of the Roman soldiers, the hair-dresses and outfits of the ladies, the superb music by Miklos Rosza, etc. To me, it simply meant a trip back in time.

Alexander must have popped out somewhere amidst all those events, a hero if ever the world has seen one. Imagine a sixteen-year-old man receiving the seal of Macedonia from his father to rule the country in his absence. Imagine him again at twenty when his father is assassinated, and he has to take charge of Macedonia and all of Greece as well. Philip II was the Hegemon of all Greeks according to the treaty signed in Corinth a few years earlier. If Alexander wanted to walk in his father's footsteps, i.e., to free the Greek cities of Asia Minor from Persian rule, he needed that title. With it came the contributions from all the participating city-states, including more soldiers. Not even in those days would such a young lad be trusted by the elderly or the politicians, so Alexander had to prove himself. He marched his army north and south through Greece to show his competence with such zeal, speed, and victory that two years later, nobody doubted that he could invade Asia. This was planned by his father and approved by the members of the Corinthian League.

So, at twenty-two, Alexander left Macedonia, appointing his trusted general Antipater as regent. At the same time, he set out with an army of about 40,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry to cross the Hellespont into Asia. The gods were with him all the way! The Persians didn't take Alexander seriously and did nothing to stop him from ferrying his army across. The first opposition happened in a lost corner of Asia Minor, on the banks of the River Granicus. Darius III, King of Persia, King of Kings, did not even bother to be present in person and delegated the attack to a mercenary, a Greek on top of that, called Memnon. Well, Memnon is defeated, and Alexander marches on, taking one city after another, one port after another, all along the coast of today's Turkey.

Amazingly, it takes King Darius more than a year before facing Alexander in person, this time at the tiny Pinarus River near Issus. The Persian army is enormous compared to the Macedonian, but it is outmaneuvered after the first minutes of the battle. Isn't that enough to trigger your interest, your respect, your admiration for this young man? Who is there today at twenty-three to boost such accomplishments, such leadership, and such audacity? How can I not admire such a personality?

King Darius panics and turns around, leaving the Issus' battlefield head over heels… shame on him! Two years later, both kings will meet again in decisive combat on Persian soil near Arbela, a place we know as Gaugamela. This really does the trick, as far as I'm concerned. It is a fight worthy of David and Goliath, where Alexander, with his 50,000 men, stands up against Darius' troops, the number of which may be exaggerated to 500,000 but must have counted at least 250,000 – five times more than Alexander's! The guts alone! The odds may have been against Alexander, but the gods were not, and here too, he is victorious as Darius once again flees into the backcountry. Tactically speaking, this battle was such a remarkable feat that it is still being taught at West Point Military Academy! And speaking of guts, do you realize that Alexander attacked an empire ten times bigger than his home country?

Well, that's about his campaigns. Alexander did much more than win battles. He took on the organization of the entire enterprise, working out the logistics and constantly moving his equipment and soldiers. Everyone looked up to him for guidance, for he was not a puppet king – far from it! His sheer spirit never ceases to amaze me. I read somewhere that he knew thousands of his soldiers by name. Imagine how that feels when the king knows you personally. The more reason for you to be motivated and do a proper job, as there is pride when he recognizes you among your comrades, knowing how well you fought. How inspiring this must have been! 

At the height of his power, his empire stretched from Greece to India and from Uzbekistan to Egypt. His army must have counted at least one hundred thousand men. One has to add the entire baggage train with its merchants, peddlers, blacksmiths, tailors, stone cutters, shipbuilders, entertainers, carpenters, cooks, masons, road builders, and whores. Alexander managed to take his dismantled ships and catapult towers with him on the road - he introduced the prefab concept eons before the word ever existed - so he could assemble them whenever needed! He moved this mass of people across scorching deserts like the Karakum and the Gedrosian, over snowcapped mountains like the Zagros and the Hindu Kush, and traversed swift-running rivers like the Euphrates and Tigris, the Oxus, and the Indus. I try to picture that crowd of soldiers, horses, followers, and equipment trudging through uncharted territories! It is mind-blowing!

Alexander took it upon himself to organize a form of government adapted to each and every country and people he conquered. He founded cities at strategic trade road crossings. We all know Alexandria in Egypt, but don't forget cities like Khodjend in Tajikistan, Kandahar, Herat, and Ai-Khanoum in Afghanistan, and Samarkand in Uzbekistan, to name just a handful – and those cities still exist and still prosper. His task was absolutely colossal, and he just did it! Of course, he had his generals, engineers, and craftsmen to assist him, but Alexander was the power behind it all! He decided where the city would be built, its layout, which veterans no longer fit for service would settle there, etc.

Alexander was also a visionary, one we would love to have around in our modern times! He welded the world into one country, for had he lived long enough, he would have conquered the Romans and the Carthaginians also. As part of that globalization (another modern concept, we think!), the king assimilated local gods to Greek gods and goddesses, making them recognizable to all. He stimulated intra-cultural marriages (after years away from home, all the Macedonian soldiers had children growing up all over Alexander's new empire). The young boys would receive a Greek education and be trained to join his army. Much to the critics and sorrow of his fellow Macedonians, he adopted specific "Persian ways" not only because the Persians expected that from their king, but that too was part of the fusion of cultures. 

The Macedonians were not ready to comprehend the vastness, the scale, or the grandeur of his conquests as Alexander did. He made excellent use of the dormant treasuries from the Persian Royal cities, minting vast amounts of gold, silver, and bronze coins. He paid his army lavishly, and the men spent the money as lavishly on all kinds of extravaganza and exotics. Trade flourished, and the economy was booming to a level unheard of before or after. The coins had Alexander's image stamped on them, and that was a relatively new concept, for until then, only gods were worthy of such a favor. Alexander's father, Philip II, was among the first to put his features on coinage, and now it was Alexander's turn. This started the habit of putting a king's image on coins, which we still do today! All over the empire, the Alexander coins were known and accepted. It was the dollar of antiquity! And we think we invented the single currency!

Finally, we must contemplate Alexander's legacy, i.e., the impact of Greek fashion, culture, and art on the occupied territories that went into history as the Hellenistic Period. Here it is that from Athens to the Indus, the official language was Greek and remained so for several hundred years until Islam took over and Arabic was introduced. Alexander built the cities according to the Greek pattern with right-angled streets, including familiar buildings like temples, gymnasiums, theaters, and stadiums. Alexander's love of games, sporting competitions, and theatrical contests with playwrights and actors traveling thousands of miles to join him is another tradition that has endured for centuries. Architects and sculptors introduced the Hellenistic style far into the East, and it is still very visible today, as in Buddha's features. And if you are familiar with the treasures of  Ai-Khanoum and Tillya-Tepe, which are still traveling the world with the exhibition on "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum in Kabul," you know exactly what I mean!   [photo source: Musée Guimet]

Our world would not be what it is today had it not been for Alexander the Great. To me, history is simply divided into two periods: before Alexander and after Alexander, instead of splitting time up into BC and AD as we do in our Western world. Whether looking at city ruins, statues, jewelry, pottery, theatre plays, or ancient writers, I'll always place them in the time frame related to Alexander. It's either something that Alexander could have known or was familiar with, or it's something that he created and shaped in such a way that we can still benefit from it today.

No other man in history has had such an impact on the world as Alexander the Great. Some tried to copy him, like Caesar or Napoleon; others simply set out to conquer the world on their own, like Genghis Khan or the Chinese Emperor Qin, but nobody reached his high standards! Nobody ever will. That is why my life is so centered around Alexander, called the Great, and rightfully so.