It all came from a photograph of an old dusty book. The scene consisted of mountainous mountains that covered a green river valley on which Alexander the Great apparently passed 2300 years ago. Like the photographer, the explorer Sir Aurel Stein, I would also like to explore the traces of ancient history in the depths of Asia.
For over two thousand years, Sándor Nagy excitedly excited the imagination of people around the earth. For some decades, 18 years ago, Alexander was impressed when the school history teacher explained the map of the classic world and tracked his finger. Who could not have been the man who inspired his soldiers beyond the earthly known ends for twelve years. Approximately 22,000 miles were fired; From Greece to India and back to Babylon. When the Macedonian king died at thirty-two in 323 BC, most of the known world lay under his feet.
By studying the library's campaign I wanted to go to the ground, the mountains, rivers and deserts landscapes set out their strategies and set their path. Geography is so often governed by history, and I wanted to see it myself. I decided to organize a expedition to focus on Turkey, the ancient Asia of Asia, and return to her feet from Troy's mysterious city to the snake's spot. What a better way to go than the 2000 mile track, traveling on the marching speed of the army and encountering some physical difficulties she faced. I wanted to see the monumental ruins of cities that they visited or attacked, and sought the ancient ways in which their soldiers were walking. Alexander and 40,000 soldiers spent eighteen months to reach Issus. I would refrain from fighting, for besieging cities, and for occasional landslides, and hoping that the route would be over twenty-five weeks to cover fifteen miles a day.
Turkey is a real treasure hunter impressed by Alexander. The first stop is Istanbul's magnificent archaeological museum. The place's pride is Alexander's sarcophagus. This is not a personal coffin of Alexander, whose details were hotly debated. Instead, in Sidon, this cemetery was revealed and probably attributed to Abdalonymus, a mere gardener who was Alexander's ruler. In death, as in life, he wanted to show that he continued to respect his rule, and Alexander also depicted his grave.
To be one of the most beautiful crafts of the ancient world to sink to your knees. In shining white marble carved, the sides of battle and hunting are plagued by energy and grace. If you look closely at the remnants of painted colors, which have highlighted the numbers even more, and tiny holes in which small spears and swords are carefully placed. On one side, Alexander is a popular pastime during hunting between the nobility of Macedonia and one of Alexander's favorite pleasures. In the other, Alexander is in the war, he has the reliable Bucephalas steed, relying on muscular legs, over a fallen Persian rider. The king himself, in the Hercules symbol, with a lion's head embedded in a helmet, backs his right shoulder with a spear ready. [33] In the spring of the 334s, Alexander began his epic expedition to overthrow the Persian Empire. As he sailed from the Gallipoli Peninsula at Hellespont, in the modern Dardanelles, he stopped half-way to sacrifice the bull and poured a kiss from a golden bowl to Poseidon and the ocean. Then the royal trumpet dressed in the armor zone was always king with the showman's instincts and threw his spear into the ground and won the continent with the right of conquest. Needless to say, he was the first to jump off his ship and rose to the sand of Asia.
When I came to Troy to walk the starting point, I felt as if many travelers first discovered the scene, confused and somewhat disappointed. There are no big columned streets that are decorated with marbles and mosaics to inspire fear, but rather give up your imagination and let ancient myths consume your thoughts. This is what Alexander almost immediately arrived to the arrival of Asia Minor. She was clothed naked, oiled and ran to place Garland on the Achilles' grave. It was a symbolic gesture, the new great warrior paid tribute to his own hero who fought a thousand years ago before Alexander (if there is any truth in Homer on the Trojan War). He then climbed up to the Temple of Athens, donated his own armor, and in return received the most famous relics from the heroic times, including the Achilles celebrated five-ply shield that was to save Alexander's life during a siege in India.
Walking started in March, and as I walked on the land, I shivered on the snow-covered hills. Fortunately, he welcomed the villagers, called the tea houses with hot cocoa, and a delicious meal was presented abundantly. I was wearing a pair of boots in the south direction, and I came to Ephesus. While Troy requires a jump of faith, the city does not need any effort to make its ruins come alive. Though almost all that can be seen today, the Romans, which came into being when the city was the capital of the province of Asia, was an important city a hundred years ago when Alexander passed. I woke up, visited the Artemis Temple, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. Coincidentally, a madman shot when Alexander was born. Today the church is unworthy and melancholy. Only one column rises completely above the swampy soil. It's hard to see first of all the rare ruins of one of the largest built buildings, but the sheer length is the first easy trace. Since many ancient buildings were often damaged, then rebuilt, or built for centuries, I can see quite fresh that a solemn church sank to the left and was not constructed. Alexander offered to cover all the costs of renovating the church on condition that he was devoting him on his behalf, but the citizens of Ephesus politely refused the PR and propaganda attempts, "because it was not a god to respect one another." Not far south, however, he found much greater willingness for his greatness. Priene's town, always poor cousin Ephesus, was just too glad to make cash and allow her to dedicate her new temple to Athens.
Today Priene stands as a real old capsule like the Hellenistic period of Alexander. On the square pattern of the rigid Hippodamian grid, after the name of the nearby architect Miletus, the stairway streets go up the steep hillside, which has almost forgotten the geography of the temple of Athens. Standing here, overlooking the breathtaking panorama over the huge alluvial plains of the Mae River, the passage of time is evident. 2300 years ago all the earth was under the sea. The islands that once witnessed great naval battles are now bare boulders in a seemingly endless home. But circling the Priene, it is almost always empty from the tourists, it is almost possible to hear the marching troops of Macedonian soldiers in the voice of the cicadas.
Going south, Alexander went to Halicarnassus, the glittering capital of the Hecatomnid dynasty, which Mausolus filled with, whose grave, the "mausoleum", was one of the seven miracles of the ancient world. This was also the most important naval base occupied by the Persians who guarded the city's 6.5km forts. These huge tower walls were technical masterpieces, and only a few decades later. They still wander over the hill above Bodrum. The western Myndos gate can get a truly majestic feeling that is well-preserved and firm, not far from a newly-built supermarket.
The powerful and powerful Halicarnassus walls were built to protect them in the old days. Alexander was equipped with a new weapon, a torsion catapult. The engineers designed Philip's father, his father, fed with animal sins that could save more than anything he had seen before. Until then, the Siege War was usually a city situation and was starving. The new arms race has just begun. With these catapults, Alexander would really lean the walls and literally break any city on his way. It is almost conceivable that the Persian Generals faces the face of the Mausoleum's old palace, probably under the castle of Crusadar, while Sándor's team has been building high-pitched towers and overthrowing the first rocks of the Rocks.
Three months to my expedition, in the middle of Anatolia, in a never-ending wheat field, in the city of Gordium. Located on the Persian royal road west of Ankara, the capital of Phrygia, founded by Gordius in Eph. Century. This was celebrated by his celebrated son, Midas, whose touch by legend has turned everything into gold. Here was one of Alexander's career's most famous moments. Alexander was drawn to the story surrounding the ceremonial chariot marking the grave of Gordius. The yoke of the car was attached by a lot of knots that no one could undo. Unlike Arthur's story and the sword of stone, people believed that anyone who would block the knot would be the master of Asia. Some audacious audiences around him tried to loosen the knot. With increased disappointment, he stretched out his sword and walked over it. Zeus himself seems to approve of Alexander's actions because "that night was lightning lightning."
On the baking stove in August I kept Cappadocia, the Taurus Mountains and past Tarsus. Where Turkey is to the south of the east, Adana turns east, there is a huge pile, recently discovered. This terrestrial "huyuk", as many scattered around this part of the world, an ancient settlement, in this case symbolizes Issus City. It was here that Alexander had left the sick and injured soldiers before he was swinging south to the Persian great King Darius. Alexander, however, did not know that Darius's army was really around him. When Darius got to Hippo, he cut off the Macedonian sick hand he found there.
Today, the area is far away from its ancient past, an industrial zone located in tobacco factories. But here was one of the most important battles in history. On the banks of a river, Alexander took his strength. He carefully selected the scene, a narrow plain between the mountains and the sea, to prevent the Persians from using a larger number of their numbers. I remember walking around in the area, armed with ancient writers who described the battle and tried to interpret the landscape. As usual, Alexander himself led the prize on the head of his finest knight, a real leader who showed his men the way. The enemy's army centered on Darius. The scene is immortalized in a mosaic in Pompeii. Sándor looks straight at the Persian big king who turns his tail and flees as fast as he can. One of the ancient authors, Diodorus Siculus, wrote: "More than winning victory against the Persians, Alexander wanted to be the personal means of victory." This gives a mysterious insight into the nature and personality of the legendary figure. The walk was only a few miles south of the town of Iskenderun City Battle, south of a city founded here to commemorate the battle. Four and a half months and two thousand miles after I was walking from Troy, I could not believe the trip was over. The many ancient cities I've seen have embedded in my memory, but most importantly, the Frankish friendship of the Turks, which is always toward a home-away tired traveler. Every day I greeted their home and showered with kindness and hospitality. Though he was only a brief matter, he was extremely passionate and left the country of Turkey madly.
Source by Peter Sommer