Which marks the easternmost point of alexanders conquests

During his year reign as the king of Macedonia, Alexander created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to northwestern India. Also called the Ganga. Most of the ancient Persian empire is in modern-day Iran.

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One example of their legacy is the Olympic Games. Use the videos, media, reference materials, and other resources in this collection to teach about ancient Greece, its role in modern-day democracy, and civic engagement. Macedonia, a small kingdom in northern Greece, established a growing empire from B. With Alexander the Great, Macedonia would come to conquer many lands and usher in the Hellenistic age in the region.

Ruled by Hammurabi, restored by Nebuchadrezzar, conquered by Cyrus—this city in the heart of Mesopotamia was both desired and despised, placing it at the center stage of the dawn of history. Due to the limited nature of the information we have about ancient Egypt, the historical figures that we call key is a more limited group than it would be in contemporary times. The article explores three groups of key figures: those involved in developing the form of the pyramid, famous Egyptian rulers, and important non-Egyptian rulers.

Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students. Skip to content. Image Alexander the Great Alexander the Great, depicted in typical Hellenistic style in this alabaster bust from Egypt, was probably physically ordinary.

Photograph by Kenneth Garrett, National Geographic. Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom. Encyclopedic Entry Vocabulary. Alexander was 32 when he died in B. Memnon, realizing the city was lost, set fire to it and withdrew with his army. A strong wind caused the fire to destroy much of the city. Alexander then committed the government of Caria to Ada; and she, in turn, formally adopted Alexander as her son, ensuring that the rule of Caria passed unconditionally to him upon her eventual death.

Darius was forced to flee the battle after his army broke, and in doing so left behind his wife, his two daughters, his mother Sisygambis, and a fabulous amount of treasure. He afterwards offered a peace treaty to Alexander, the concession of the lands he had already conquered, and a ransom of 10, talents for his family.

Alexander replied that since he was now king of Asia, it was he alone who decided territorial divisions. Alexander proceeded to take possession of Syria, and most of the coast of the Levant. However, the following year, BC, he was forced to attack Tyre, which he eventually captured after a famous siege.

It was after his capture of Tyre that Alexander crucified all the men of military age, and sold the women and children into slavery. After Alexander's forces successfully defeated the Persians at the Battle of the Granicus, Darius took personal charge of his army, gathered a large army from the depths of the empire, and maneuvered to cut the Greek line of supply, requiring Alexander to countermarch his forces, setting the stage for the battle near the mouth of the Pinarus River and south of the village of Issus.

Darius was apparently unaware that, by deciding to stage the battle on a river bank, he was minimizing the numerical advantage his army had over Alexander's. Initially, Alexander chose what was apparently unfavorable ground. This surprised Darius who mistakenly elected to hold the wrong position while Alexander instructed his infantry to take up a defensive posture.

Alexander personally led the more elite Greek Companion cavalry against the Persian left up against the hills, and cut up the enemy on the less encumbering terrain generating a quick rout. After achieving a breakthrough, Alexander demonstrated he could do the difficult and held the cavalry successfully in check after it broke the Persian right. Alexander then mounted his beloved horse Bucephalus at the head of his Companion cavalry and led a direct assault against Darius.

The horses that were pulling Darius' chariot were injured, and began tossing at the yoke. Darius, about to fall off his chariot, instead jumped off. He tossed off his royal diadem, mounted a horse, and fled the scene. The Persian troops, realizing they had lost, either surrendered or fled with their hapless king.

The Macedonian cavalry pursued the fleeing Persians for as long as there was light. As with most ancient battles, significant carnage occurred after the battle as pursuing Macedonians slaughtered their crowded, disorganized foe.

The invading troops led by Alexander, were outnumbered more than , defeated the army personally led by Darius III of Achaemenid Persia. The battle was a decisive Macedonian victory and it marked the beginning of the end of Persian power.

Darius left his wife and an enormous amount of treasure behind as his army fled. The greed of the Macedonians helped to persuade them to keep going, as did the large number of Persian concubines and prostitutes they picked up in the battle.

Darius, by now fearing for both his throne and his life, sent a letter to Alexander where he promised to pay him a substantial ransom in exchange for his prisoners of war, agreed to sign a treaty of alliance with Alexander, and agreed to give to Alexander half of his empire. Darius received a response from Alexander, which began "King Alexander to Darius". In the letter, Alexander blamed Darius for his father's death and claimed Darius to be a vulgar usurper who planned to take Macedonia.

He agreed to return the prisoners without ransom, but told Darius that he and Alexander were not equals, and that Darius was to address Alexander as "King of all Asia".

He also told Darius that, if he wanted to dispute Alexander's claim to the Achaemenid throne, that he would have to stand and fight Alexander, but if he fled, Alexander would pursue and kill him.

By this, Alexander revealed for the first time that his plan was to conquer the entire Persian Empire. When Alexander destroyed Tyre, most of the towns on the route to Egypt quickly capitulated, with exception of Gaza. The stronghold at Gaza was built on a hill and was heavily fortified. At the beginning of the Siege of Gaza, Alexander utilized the engines he had employed against Tyre.

After three unsuccessful assaults, the stronghold was finally taken by force, but not before Alexander received a serious shoulder wound. When Gaza was taken, the male population was put to the sword and the women and children were sold into slavery. Alexander now advanced in Egypt in later BC, where he was as a liberator in Egypt.

He was pronounced the new "master of the Universe" and son of the deity of Amun at the Oracle of Siwa Oasis in the Libyan desert. Henceforth, Alexander often referred to Zeus-Ammon as his true father, and subsequent currency depicted him adorned with ram horns as a symbol of his divinity. During his stay in Egypt, he founded Alexandria-by-Egypt, which would become the prosperous capital of the Ptolemaic kingdom after his death.

The Battle of Gaugamela took place in BC in what is now northern Iraq, possibly near Mosul, and resulted in a decisive victory for the Macedonians. After the Siege of Gaza, Alexander advanced from Syria towards the heart of the Persian empire, crossing both the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers without any opposition.

Darius was building up a massive army, drawing men from the far reaches of his empire, and planned to use sheer numbers to crush Alexander. While Darius had a significant advantage in numbers, most of his troops were of a lower quality than Alexander's. The battle began with the Persians already present at the battlefield. Darius had recruited the finest cavalry from his eastern satrapies. Darius placed himself in the center with his best infantry as was the tradition among Persian kings.

The Macedonians were divided into two, with the right side of the army falling under the direct command of Alexander, and the left to Parmenion. Alexander began by ordering his infantry to march in phalanx formation towards the center of the enemy line. Darius now launched his chariots, which were intercepted by the Agrianians, and quickly rendered useless. Alexander, while leading the charge, formed his units into a giant wedge, which quickly smashed right into the weakened Persian center.

Darius' charioteer was killed by a spear, and chaos rang out as everyone incorrectly thought it was Darius who had been killed. The Persian line then collapsed, and Darius fled. Darius escaped with a small core of his forces remaining intact, although the Bactrian cavalry and Bessus soon caught up with him.

The remaining Persian resistance was quickly put down. In all, the Battle of Gaugamela was a disastrous defeat for the Persians, and possibly one of Alexander's finest victories. From Babylon, Alexander went to Susa, one of the Achaemenid capitals, and captured its legendary treasury. Sending the bulk of his army to the Persian ceremonial capital of Persepolis via the Royal Road, Alexander himself took selected troops on the direct route to the city. However, the pass of the Persian Gates in the modern Zagros Mountains had been blocked by a Persian army under Ariobarzanes, and Alexander had to storm the pass.

Alexander then made a dash for Persepolis before its garrison could loot the treasury could. It was at Persepolis that Alexander was said to have stared at the crumbled statue of Xerxes and decided to leave it on the ground—a symbolic gesture of vengeance. During their stay at the capital, a fire broke out in the eastern palace of Xerxes and spread to the rest of the city. Theories abound as to whether this was the result of a drunken accident, or a deliberate act of revenge for the burning of the Acropolis of Athens during the Second Persian War.

Alexander then set off in pursuit of Darius again, first into Media, and then Parthia. After the The Persian king was no longer in control of his destiny, having been taken prisoner by Bessus, his Bactrian satrap and kinsman. As Alexander approached, Bessus had his men fatally stab the Great King and then declared himself Darius' successor as Artaxerxes V before retreating into Central Asia to launch a guerrilla campaign against Alexander.

Darius was found by one of Alexander's scouts, dying, in a baggage train being pulled by an ox. Before he died, Darius remarked that he was glad that he would not die alone. Alexander claimed that, while dying, Darius had named Alexander as his successor to the Achaemenid throne. The Achaemenid Empire is considered to have fallen with the death of Darius.

Alexander, now viewing himself as the legitimate successor to Darius, viewed Bessus as a usurper to the Achaemenid throne, and set out to defeat him. This campaign, which was initially against Bessus, would turn into a grand tour of central Asia, Alexander founding a series of new cities, all called Alexandria, including modern Kandahar in Afghanistan, and Alexandria Eschate "The Furthest" in modern Tajikistan. Bessus was betrayed in BC by Spitamenes, who held an undefined position in the satrapy of Sogdiana.

Spitamenes handed over Bessus to Ptolemy, one of Alexander's trusted companions, and Bessus was then executed. However, when, at some point later, Alexander was on the Jaxartes, Spitamenes raised Sogdiana in revolt against Alexander.

Alexander therefore launched a campaign against Spitamenes, and after he was defeated in the Battle of Gabai, Spitamenes was killed by his own men, who then sued for peace. The majority of the existing Eastern satraps swore loyalty to Alexander, and were allowed to keep their positions.

During this time, Alexander adopted some elements of Persian dress and customs at his court, notably the custom of proskynesis, either a symbolic kissing of the hand, or prostration on the ground, that Persians paid to their social superiors.

The Greeks regarded the gesture as the province of deities and believed that Alexander meant to deify himself by requiring it. This cost him much in the sympathies of many of his countrymen. Here, too, a plot against his life was revealed, and one of his officers, Philotas, was executed for failing to bring the plot to his attention. The death of the son necessitated the death of the father, and thus Parmenion, who had been charged with guarding the treasury at Ecbatana, was assassinated by command of Alexander, so he might not make attempts at vengeance.

Most infamously, Alexander personally slew the man who had saved his life at Granicus, Cleitus the Black, during a drunken argument at Maracanda. Later in the Central Asian campaign, a second plot against his life was revealed, this one instigated by his own royal pages. His official historian, Callisthenes of Olynthus who had fallen out of favor with the king by leading the opposition to his attempt to introduce proskynesis , was implicated in the plot, however, there never has been consensus among historians regarding his involvement in the conspiracy.

After the death of Spitamenes and his marriage to Roxana Roshanak in Bactrian to cement his relations with his new Central Asian satrapies, Alexander was finally free to turn his attention to the Indian subcontinent. Alexander invited all the chieftains of the former satrapy of Gandhara, in the north of what is now Pakistan, to come to him and submit to his authority.

Omphis, ruler of Taxila, whose kingdom extended from the Indus to the Hydaspes, complied, but the chieftains of some hill clans, including the Aspasioi and Assakenoi sections of the Kambojas known in Indian texts as Ashvayanas and Ashvakayanas , refused to submit.

A fierce contest ensued with the Aspasioi in which Alexander himself was wounded in the shoulder by a dart but eventually the Aspasioi lost the fight. Alexander then faced the Assakenoi, who fought bravely and offered stubborn resistance to Alexander in the strongholds of Massaga, Ora and Aornos. The fort of Massaga could only be reduced after several days of bloody fighting in which Alexander himself was wounded seriously in the ankle.

According to Curtius, "Not only did Alexander slaughter the entire population of Massaga, but also did he reduce its buildings to rubbles. In the aftermath of Massaga and Ora, numerous Assakenians fled to the fortress of Aornos. Alexander followed close behind their heels and captured the strategic hill-fort after the fourth day of a bloody fight.

After reducing Aornos, Alexander crossed the Indus and fought and won an epic battle against a local ruler Porus, who ruled a region in the Punjab, in the Battle of Hydaspes in BC. After the battle, Alexander was greatly impressed by Porus for his bravery in battle, and therefore made an alliance with him and appointed him as satrap of his own kingdom, even adding some land he did not own before.

Alexander then named one of the two new cities that he founded, Bucephala, in honor of the horse who had brought him to India, who had died during the Battle of Hydaspes. Fearing the prospects of facing other powerful Indian armies and exhausted by years of campaigning, his army mutinied at the Hyphasis River, refusing to march further east.

This river thus marks the easternmost extent of Alexander's conquests.