Alexander the great facts
Alexander III of Macedon (356 – 323 B.C.), better known as Alexander the Great, is one of the most attractive historical figures to study not only ancient history but history in general. His short but intense life, the significance of all his military exploits, and the radical change he brought about throughout the world have led to the publication of thousands of studies on everything related to his life and work in recent centuries. Before going into the heart of the Persian Empire to finish his enemy definitively, let’s see how was the stay of Alexander the Great in Egypt.
Alexander the Great in Egypt: The Saving Hero
After his spectacular victory at the Battle of Issues and his complex victory in the siege of Tyre, Alexander the Great had within his grasp the greatest prize he could have won during this first phase of his decade of conquest in Asia: Egypt. Isolated in the midst of a hostile population and with no hope of receiving help from Darius III, the satrap Mazaces quickly surrendered. Thus, the Macedonian conqueror seized power of the country of the Nile without engaging in combat at the end of 332 BC.
Alexander The Great and Egypt
Unlike the peoples of the Middle East, the ancient Egyptians never accepted Persian domination, so their two periods of invasion (525 – 404 BC and 343 – 332 BC) were characterized by constant uprisings and severe repression. Therefore, it is not strange that the Egyptians received Alexander and his people with great festivities. Proof of this is that, once he was at Memphis, the sovereign celebrated his victory with Greek-style games and Sacrifices to Zeus. At the same time, Alexander tried to win over the people and the Egyptian priestly caste by publicly honoring the main Egyptian deities.
In the nearly four months that Alexander the Great spent in Egypt, there was plenty of time to incorporate the precious country into his possessions without any great acts of weaponry. The reasons why he set out to conquer Egypt instead of heading to Mesopotamia to confront the Persian Emperor seem clear: the natural, commercial and geostrategy resources of the country of the Nile were very important. The exploitation of these resources solved the problems of financing the campaigns and provided Alexander with a magnificent base of operations to consolidate all the conquests made until then.
Probably at Memphis, Alexander the Great had himself proclaimed pharaoh, wearing on his head the double crown symbolizing Upper and Lower Egypt and adopting the traditional royal title of the pharaohs. Pharaoh Alexander was considered the son of Ra and was worshipped by his new subjects as a god, always with the collaboration of the powerful priestly caste.
Alexander the Great in Egypt: the foundation of Alexandria
Beyond his accelerated acclimatization to local traditions, the two most important events of Alexander the Great’s stay in Egypt were still to come: the founding of the city of Alexandria and the visit to The Temple of the Oracle (Temple of Amun)at the Siwa … Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great at the beginning of 331 BC. Legend has it that it was Alexander himself who, accompanied by his engineers and architects, would have traced on the ground with flour the main axes of the city crossed at right angles, as well as the location of the main buildings.
According to the ancient authors, the city would have reached a size of up to ten or twelve square kilometers, and at least 600,000 people would have lived there at its best. Conceived since its foundation as the best showcase in the West for Egypt’s cultural and economic wealth and splendor, Alexandria soon became one of the most important cities not only in Egypt but in the entire ancient world.
The Temple of the Oracle (Temple of Amun) at the Siwa
Located in the middle of the Libyan desert, several hundred kilometers from Memphis is the Siwa Oasis. There stands the rocky hill of Aghurmi, on top of which was the citadel that housed the oracle shrine of Amun, considered one of the holiest places in the ancient world. It is practically impossible to know what happened in the sanctuary since Alexander entered the temple’s sanctuary alone and never explained what had happened to him.
We know that, upon his arrival, the priest of Amon greeted him as the son of God, and that upon entering the most intimate part of the temple he posed a series of unknown questions to the oracle, the answers to which caused great satisfaction to the new pharaoh. According to what Diodorus and Plutarch told us (probably with a basis in legend rather than in reality), Alexander perhaps asked two questions: whether he would become the ruler of all men, to which the god answered in the affirmative; and whether any of those guilty of the murder of his father, Philip II, was still alive, to which the god ordered him to be silent since his real father was the God Amon, assimilated as Alexander the Great.
