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IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT: A Journey From Greece To India.
By
Michael Wood
More than two millennia ago, Alexander the Great changed the course of human history in an astonishingly short time. He acceded to the throne of Macedon at the age of just 20, and by the time he was 30 he had conquered the known world. At 32 he was dead. His 22,000-mile journey to India and back opened up connections between the East and West, and even today its traces can be found throughout Asia - in cultures, legends, place names and traditions.
Alexander the Great's journey from Greece to India is seen as a key moment in history which laid the foundations for the later dominance of Western culture, but which also, ironically, paved the way for the spread of Islam. Retracing the journey, Michael Wood travels by plane, train, boat and camel and on foot through many of the 20th century's major trouble spots, including Beirut and Kurdistan. Among the people he encounters are Lebanese traders, Iranian pilgrims and Afghan guerrillas. In an account based on a range of sources as diverse as medieval travellers' narratives, satellite photography and eye-witness reports, momentous events of the past are interwoven with present-day reality.
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