1 00:00:04,804 --> 00:00:08,865 2,300 years ago, Alexander the Great invaded Asia, 2 00:00:09,242 --> 00:00:11,642 his goal to conquer the Persian Empire. 3 00:00:14,814 --> 00:00:17,942 We followed in his footsteps, a 20,000-mile journey 4 00:00:18,151 --> 00:00:20,312 from Greece to the plains of lndia. 5 00:00:23,356 --> 00:00:27,053 ln the third year of the war, Alexander marched into Egypt. 6 00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:32,127 There, at the oracle of Siwa, he was proclaimed Son of God, a true pharaoh. 7 00:00:32,632 --> 00:00:35,465 Now he turned his gaze towards Persia. 8 00:01:14,340 --> 00:01:16,900 - Name. - My name is Wood. 9 00:01:17,210 --> 00:01:23,410 Family name: Wood. First name: Michael. Michael Wood. 10 00:01:24,918 --> 00:01:25,816 Thank you. 11 00:01:26,886 --> 00:01:29,150 Ourjourney now led us into northern lraq. 12 00:01:29,355 --> 00:01:30,754 Free Kurdistan. 13 00:01:41,367 --> 00:01:44,359 Our plan was to follow Alexander's route eastwards 14 00:01:44,571 --> 00:01:47,938 towards the site of his decisive battle with the Persian king, 15 00:01:48,141 --> 00:01:50,473 Darius, the Lord of Asia. 16 00:01:56,583 --> 00:02:00,178 The people here were still hanging on to their precarious independence 17 00:02:00,386 --> 00:02:03,014 from the lraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. 18 00:02:12,098 --> 00:02:14,726 We were now on one of the great travel routes of history. 19 00:02:15,235 --> 00:02:19,194 This was once the Persian Royal Road, later part of the Silk Route 20 00:02:19,405 --> 00:02:21,669 which joined the Mediterranean with China. 21 00:02:22,942 --> 00:02:25,843 lt's been fought over for 5,000 years. 22 00:02:34,621 --> 00:02:39,024 Beyond the mountains, the road comes down to a wide plain where the battle was fought. 23 00:02:39,492 --> 00:02:44,452 Darius had already been defeated at lssus. His wife and family were Alexander's prisoners. 24 00:02:44,664 --> 00:02:48,794 He now staked everything on a battle near the town of Gaugamela. 25 00:02:53,806 --> 00:02:58,140 We stopped for water near where Alexander must have camped that September. 26 00:03:05,485 --> 00:03:10,149 When Alexander came here, the 50-degree summer heat was dying down. 27 00:03:19,632 --> 00:03:24,797 As it turned out, this was as close as we could get to the site of the battle. 28 00:03:29,776 --> 00:03:33,712 Tantalisingly, it was only a few miles to the south of us, 29 00:03:33,980 --> 00:03:36,744 out there on the flat plain of Kurdistan, 30 00:03:37,850 --> 00:03:41,149 but it lay beyond the front line of Saddam Hussein's lraqi army 31 00:03:41,387 --> 00:03:42,979 and was out of reach. 32 00:03:53,967 --> 00:03:56,697 The area you're gonna be flying over today, 33 00:03:56,936 --> 00:04:01,873 Saddam Hussein's got troop concentrations basically here in Kirkuk and also Al-mawsil. 34 00:04:02,108 --> 00:04:05,077 His troops are also running down a line between the cities. 35 00:04:05,445 --> 00:04:09,506 The British and Americans running Operation Provide Comfort over Kurdistan 36 00:04:09,716 --> 00:04:11,206 offered to help out, 37 00:04:11,484 --> 00:04:14,976 for Alexander and Darius met on what today's military analysts 38 00:04:15,188 --> 00:04:17,816 still see as a fault line of history. 39 00:04:18,224 --> 00:04:22,991 lt's amazing how these strategic places stay important through history. 40 00:04:23,196 --> 00:04:28,566 Alexander the Great, when he came, his army moved in from this side 41 00:04:28,768 --> 00:04:30,668 and they came down here in this gap. 42 00:04:30,870 --> 00:04:35,330 And the Persian army came up from lrbil, up here. 43 00:04:35,541 --> 00:04:40,945 Just in that gap, there's this hill which is about 3,500 feet, 44 00:04:41,147 --> 00:04:42,671 just rises straight out of the plain. 45 00:04:42,882 --> 00:04:46,716 That's where they met. That must be almost on your front line, l guess. 46 00:04:46,919 --> 00:04:49,752 Almost exactly. The line is running right along there. 47 00:05:18,551 --> 00:05:23,420 On the AWACS screens, we saw the current military situation over northern lraq. 48 00:05:30,930 --> 00:05:34,764 The crew fed in what was known to Alexander's intelligence experts 49 00:05:34,967 --> 00:05:37,333 in September 331 BC. 50 00:05:37,570 --> 00:05:39,595 Can you bring up the rivers and things like that? 51 00:05:43,109 --> 00:05:44,701 The rivers and the mountains come up together. 52 00:05:44,911 --> 00:05:47,539 - This is the Tigris? - That's correct. 53 00:05:47,747 --> 00:05:50,477 - The Great Zab. - That is correct. 54 00:05:50,917 --> 00:05:56,446 - So, can you show us Mosul and lrbil? - Certainly. 55 00:05:58,491 --> 00:06:02,951 Alexander probably crosses the Tigris between the 15th and the 20th. 56 00:06:03,162 --> 00:06:04,493 lt would have taken them several days. 57 00:06:04,697 --> 00:06:06,688 On the night of the 20th there was an eclipse 58 00:06:06,899 --> 00:06:08,867 which stopped them in their tracks 59 00:06:09,068 --> 00:06:13,903 until the army seers told them it was a good omen. 60 00:06:14,107 --> 00:06:18,737 And then they sighted the Persians probably about the 25th, 61 00:06:18,945 --> 00:06:21,345 the scouts did, and they rested for four days. 62 00:06:21,547 --> 00:06:26,075 Darius had moved up through lrbil probably about the 18th of September, 63 00:06:26,285 --> 00:06:28,753 crossed the Great Zab about the 23rd. 64 00:06:29,989 --> 00:06:32,719 - Can you go in closer on it? - Onto the battle area? 65 00:06:32,925 --> 00:06:37,225 - Yeah. - We'll put the battle area into the middle. 66 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:44,265 This is the moment on which Alexander's career stands or falls. 67 00:06:44,470 --> 00:06:49,339 His army's heavily outnumbered by the Persians and now almost completely surrounded, 68 00:06:49,542 --> 00:06:52,739 but he knew that this would happen. ln fact, he wanted it to happen. 69 00:06:52,945 --> 00:06:56,176 His plan was his wings would hold the Persians off for long enough 70 00:06:56,382 --> 00:07:03,345 to see a gap open in the Persian line through which Alexander could push to hit Darius himself. 71 00:07:03,556 --> 00:07:06,286 Everything depended on the Macedonian troops, 72 00:07:06,492 --> 00:07:11,429 on each unit carrying out its instructions even if they couldn't see a thing around them. 73 00:07:11,631 --> 00:07:16,694 And it also depended on the incredible nerve of Alexander himself, 74 00:07:16,903 --> 00:07:18,803 who was still only 25. 75 00:07:21,974 --> 00:07:25,967 Darius's greatest army was crushed. He fled back into lran. 76 00:07:26,245 --> 00:07:28,907 And with that defeat, said the historian Plutarch, 77 00:07:29,115 --> 00:07:33,643 the power of the Persian Empire was seen to be completely overthrown. 78 00:07:35,955 --> 00:07:38,822 Alexander advanced swiftly into lraq. 79 00:07:39,425 --> 00:07:40,722 Babylon surrendered. 80 00:07:43,329 --> 00:07:47,698 Late November, he marched on Darius's winter capital, Susa. 81 00:07:47,900 --> 00:07:50,130 The invasion of Persia had begun. 82 00:07:54,407 --> 00:08:00,368 Mid-December he reached the Karkheh river near Susa, just inside today's lranian border. 83 00:08:08,054 --> 00:08:10,249 l'd brought with me an intelligence map 84 00:08:10,456 --> 00:08:14,222 made for the British invasion of this region in the First World War. 85 00:08:16,696 --> 00:08:19,290 Alexander wasn't traveling into an unknown country. 86 00:08:19,966 --> 00:08:24,903 Greeks had journeyed and worked in Persia for centuries before his day. 87 00:08:25,271 --> 00:08:29,401 And a huge amount of information would have been available. 88 00:08:29,675 --> 00:08:35,705 And, no doubt, the Macedonian general staff sent their agents into Persia 89 00:08:35,915 --> 00:08:40,045 to prepare intelligence dossiers on the distances into the interior, 90 00:08:40,253 --> 00:08:45,919 maybe even maps, like this, mapping all the details that an army would need to know. 91 00:08:46,158 --> 00:08:49,650 Which fords were fordable by an army with heavy equipment. 92 00:08:49,896 --> 00:08:52,763 Where the rivers were impassable. Where they were navigable. 93 00:08:52,965 --> 00:08:55,126 Where there were camping grounds. 94 00:08:55,401 --> 00:08:58,632 Where you could find good water and where it was undrinkable. 95 00:08:59,005 --> 00:09:04,966 Here, marked on this map of 1915, is the ancient Royal Road from Babylon to Susa, 96 00:09:05,177 --> 00:09:11,912 running all the way across this landscape and down to Susa, Alexander's destination. 97 00:09:12,885 --> 00:09:16,981 lt reminds us of that tale of young Alexander, the ten-year-old boy, 98 00:09:17,189 --> 00:09:20,818 talking to Persian ambassadors back home in the Macedonian court, 99 00:09:21,160 --> 00:09:27,292 and asking them about the details of the distances of the journey into the heart of Persia. 100 00:09:27,633 --> 00:09:30,830 That boy certainly knew where he was going. 101 00:09:39,378 --> 00:09:42,370 We arrived in lran during the festival of Ashura, 102 00:09:42,615 --> 00:09:44,310 the time of lamentation. 103 00:09:53,159 --> 00:09:56,754 Then the streets are jammed with parades and passion plays. 104 00:10:02,201 --> 00:10:05,659 On the carnival floats are the bogeymen of lranian history; 105 00:10:05,938 --> 00:10:08,771 the last shah and the wicked caliphs. 106 00:10:25,124 --> 00:10:30,494 And up there with them, like a fairy-tale villain, is the great lskander, Alexander himself. 107 00:10:39,105 --> 00:10:42,563 At the climax of the day, they carry huge mirrored coffins 108 00:10:42,775 --> 00:10:45,209 to commemorate the dead heroes of lslam. 109 00:10:50,216 --> 00:10:53,652 ln few countries is the sense of the wounds of history so alive, 110 00:10:53,886 --> 00:10:56,878 the idea that the great defeats should never be forgotten. 111 00:10:57,456 --> 00:11:00,186 And lran's two greatest defeats were by the Arabs 112 00:11:00,393 --> 00:11:03,021 and before them by Alexander. 113 00:11:05,598 --> 00:11:08,328 And that story has never been forgotten here. 114 00:11:26,919 --> 00:11:31,583 This is from the thousand-year-old epic by Ferdowsi, the Homer of lran. 115 00:11:58,984 --> 00:12:02,249 And lran now braced itself for the Greek onslaught. 116 00:12:15,301 --> 00:12:16,859 With Darius still in the north, 117 00:12:17,069 --> 00:12:20,197 Susa was unprotected and fell without a fight. 118 00:12:22,875 --> 00:12:26,902 The Greeks burst into the great audience hall here. lmagine it: 119 00:12:27,113 --> 00:12:30,276 70-foot high columns holding up a cedar-wood roof, 120 00:12:30,483 --> 00:12:32,542 glittering with gilt and precious stones. 121 00:12:33,552 --> 00:12:36,885 Alexander walked over and sat on the throne of Darius. 122 00:12:37,123 --> 00:12:40,650 But being a small man, his feet didn't touch the top step. 123 00:12:40,893 --> 00:12:44,192 One of the pages pushed over a table to help. 124 00:12:44,396 --> 00:12:47,797 At this point, the sound of sobbing was heard in the room. 125 00:12:48,234 --> 00:12:51,965 lt turned out to be one of Darius's royal eunuchs. 126 00:12:52,204 --> 00:12:55,401 Alexander asked him through an interpreter why he was so upset. 127 00:12:55,708 --> 00:13:01,669 He answered, ''This was the table at which my master Darius used to take his food. 128 00:13:02,181 --> 00:13:05,639 ''lt breaks my heart to see it used so disrespectfully.'' 129 00:13:06,552 --> 00:13:11,649 Alexander, so it is said, felt shamed by the god of hospitality 130 00:13:11,891 --> 00:13:13,552 and he ordered the table removed. 131 00:13:13,926 --> 00:13:15,917 But at this point, one of his generals said, 132 00:13:16,128 --> 00:13:21,498 ''No, don't do that, Your Majesty. Your enemy's table has become your footstool.'' 133 00:13:21,967 --> 00:13:25,095 ''Take that as an omen of your future victory.'' 134 00:13:33,078 --> 00:13:35,740 Below the ruins of Susa, there's an old shrine 135 00:13:35,948 --> 00:13:39,509 still revered by Jews and Christians here, as well as Muslims. 136 00:13:41,587 --> 00:13:43,817 lt's the tomb of the prophet Daniel, 137 00:13:44,023 --> 00:13:46,992 who was cast by the Persian king into the lions' den. 138 00:13:54,533 --> 00:14:00,062 And in the Bible story of Daniel, there's a strange vision of the coming of Alexander. 139 00:14:03,042 --> 00:14:07,911 ln a dream, the prophet saw four terrible monsters coming out of the sea. 140 00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:11,643 The last of them was Alexander's Macedonians, 141 00:14:11,951 --> 00:14:14,784 a frightful beast with iron teeth 142 00:14:14,987 --> 00:14:17,854 which devoured everything in its path. 143 00:14:19,992 --> 00:14:23,519 ln that image, you've got something of the cyclonic force 144 00:14:23,729 --> 00:14:26,323 of Alexander's arrival on the lranian scene. 145 00:14:26,532 --> 00:14:32,960 As the lranians said, he was a demon with dishevelled hair, born of the race of wrath. 146 00:14:40,846 --> 00:14:44,907 ln late December, Alexander left Susa, his army doubled now, 147 00:14:45,117 --> 00:14:49,679 reinforced to 70,000 men by a vast flow of manpower from Greece. 148 00:14:52,024 --> 00:14:57,656 He would now strike at the very heart of the empire beyond the Zagros mountains. 149 00:15:22,154 --> 00:15:26,716 Our plan was to walk over the mountain passes in Alexander's footsteps. 150 00:15:33,332 --> 00:15:34,697 Will we be able to sleep up there? 151 00:15:36,535 --> 00:15:38,196 - Yes. - Great. 152 00:15:43,609 --> 00:15:46,339 That's great. OK. 153 00:15:59,158 --> 00:16:04,494 Alexander's aim now was to capture the Persian capital, Persepolis. 154 00:16:11,704 --> 00:16:15,071 He'd sent most of his army the long way round via Shiraz. 155 00:16:15,441 --> 00:16:18,433 He now took a short cut straight through the mountains 156 00:16:18,644 --> 00:16:20,635 to take the Persians by surprise. 157 00:16:42,735 --> 00:16:47,536 Going up this valley, you can hardly believe that Alexander would have risked the elite of his army, 158 00:16:47,740 --> 00:16:50,538 20,000 men, in this kind of terrain. 159 00:16:51,076 --> 00:16:55,035 But they must have had advance intelligence of the route. 160 00:16:55,381 --> 00:17:01,149 He'd sent Parmenio with the baggage trains and heavy troops on the long route to the south. 161 00:17:01,353 --> 00:17:04,413 He was looking for a short cut through the Zagros mountains 162 00:17:04,623 --> 00:17:06,955 to get to Persepolis as fast as he could. 163 00:17:07,159 --> 00:17:09,821 They must have known that there was such a short cut. 164 00:17:10,129 --> 00:17:13,895 lt was a very ancient route, used possibly for thousands of years, 165 00:17:14,166 --> 00:17:17,465 known to the ancients as the key to Anshan, 166 00:17:17,669 --> 00:17:19,933 the old name for the heartland of Persia. 167 00:17:20,572 --> 00:17:26,272 lt was difficult, narrow passes, but it led straight on to Persepolis 168 00:17:26,478 --> 00:17:29,914 through the pass which the Greeks called the Persian Gates. 169 00:17:36,688 --> 00:17:40,784 But Darius's general, Ariobarzanes, had set a trap. 170 00:17:42,628 --> 00:17:46,359 The Macedonians had pressed deep into the Persian Gates before they realised 171 00:17:46,565 --> 00:17:47,964 that there was any trouble. 172 00:17:53,705 --> 00:17:58,267 Then, when they came here to the narrows, not far below the watershed of the pass, 173 00:17:58,477 --> 00:18:02,914 they suddenly discovered to their surprise that the Persians had walled the path 174 00:18:03,115 --> 00:18:07,609 and had defended the path in depth. Then the Persians attacked. 175 00:18:08,554 --> 00:18:12,684 From these cliffs above, they launched a hail of rocks, stones, 176 00:18:12,891 --> 00:18:16,258 spears and javelins down into the river bed below. 177 00:18:17,529 --> 00:18:20,623 Alexander was helpless. His troops were suffering heavy casualties 178 00:18:20,833 --> 00:18:24,064 and he ordered the trumpeter to sound the retreat. 179 00:18:24,303 --> 00:18:27,636 The army pulled out of the pass, leaving the dead where they fell. 180 00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:32,140 For once in his career, Alexander had been outwitted. 181 00:18:32,544 --> 00:18:35,843 And you can imagine how that went down in the royal tent that evening. 182 00:18:41,353 --> 00:18:44,652 Alexander camped back at the mouth of the pass, as we did. 183 00:18:46,825 --> 00:18:50,158 He was furious with himself for leading his men into a trap. 184 00:18:53,332 --> 00:18:56,358 The story of the battle is still told by the local people here. 185 00:19:04,510 --> 00:19:08,674 How the Persian hero, Ariobarzanes, tricked the great Alexander. 186 00:19:17,156 --> 00:19:19,954 How do you know these stories, then? 187 00:19:26,565 --> 00:19:30,934 lt's a tale, as they say here, which has been passed down from chest to chest. 188 00:19:31,403 --> 00:19:37,205 So this is a story that's been handed down from grandfather to father to son in these parts? 189 00:19:42,714 --> 00:19:45,308 Alexander was now in a desperate corner. 190 00:19:49,821 --> 00:19:54,224 And is there another way from somewhere around here 191 00:19:54,426 --> 00:19:57,122 that can get to the back of the pass? 192 00:19:57,396 --> 00:20:01,730 Urgently now, Alexander asked that same question of his local prisoners. 193 00:20:07,306 --> 00:20:11,106 A shepherd told him there was a path, but it was impossible for an army. 194 00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:19,678 But Alexander had no choice. At nine in the evening he gave the orders to go. 195 00:20:24,389 --> 00:20:26,186 Hs route has never been found, 196 00:20:26,391 --> 00:20:29,383 and Zavoreh and his brother couldn't agree over which way he went. 197 00:20:34,132 --> 00:20:36,430 But Zavoreh seemed to me to be right. 198 00:20:39,171 --> 00:20:41,731 Still arguing, they said they'd take us next day. 199 00:20:51,483 --> 00:20:53,815 Soon after dawn, we set off. 200 00:20:54,253 --> 00:20:56,619 lt was about 20km up to the top. 201 00:21:07,266 --> 00:21:11,259 The troops kept absolute silence. Trumpet signals were forbidden. 202 00:21:13,572 --> 00:21:14,470 Up here. 203 00:21:15,507 --> 00:21:16,997 Nerves were on edge. 204 00:21:17,376 --> 00:21:20,777 They all knew their lives were in the hands of one local guide, 205 00:21:20,979 --> 00:21:22,708 says the historian Curtius. 206 00:21:22,914 --> 00:21:25,940 lf they were betrayed, they'd be trapped like wild animals. 207 00:21:34,493 --> 00:21:37,860 Look at this. This is exactly what the Greeks described, isn't it? 208 00:21:42,100 --> 00:21:45,627 Very difficult country seamed with ravines and gorges, 209 00:21:45,871 --> 00:21:49,898 all the more unfamiliar to them because they were travelling it at night. 210 00:21:50,108 --> 00:21:52,099 You can really imagine it here, can't you? 211 00:22:06,158 --> 00:22:07,523 We were slower than Alexander. 212 00:22:07,726 --> 00:22:11,321 lt took us three or four hours to get up onto the top above the pass. 213 00:22:26,578 --> 00:22:28,808 - So is this it, Aliakvar? - Yes. 214 00:22:29,214 --> 00:22:32,843 - Dasht-e Tavil? - That's what it's called. - Dasht-e Tavil. Right. Great. 215 00:22:39,891 --> 00:22:41,654 So this is exactly what the Greeks meant. 216 00:22:41,860 --> 00:22:46,388 When they came up the gully and they got to the top, this is it, isn't it? 217 00:22:48,133 --> 00:22:51,728 On top, at about 6,000 or 7,000 feet, there's a plateau. 218 00:22:52,270 --> 00:22:55,671 Here, Alexander stopped to divide his forces and take some food. 219 00:23:04,783 --> 00:23:06,546 So, Habibullah, what do you think? 220 00:23:06,752 --> 00:23:13,055 Do you think he could have brought an army of 10,000 or 15,000 men up here? 221 00:23:14,659 --> 00:23:15,421 Possible. 222 00:23:17,562 --> 00:23:19,655 No tea, though, for them. 223 00:23:26,671 --> 00:23:31,904 So, imagine, the middle of the night, a freezing January night, 224 00:23:32,210 --> 00:23:34,201 we're here in the Dasht-e Tavil. 225 00:23:34,479 --> 00:23:38,779 The Macedonian troops are still filing up that narrow gorge we've just come through. 226 00:23:38,984 --> 00:23:43,614 Alexander and his generals sit down to work out the final stages of the plan. 227 00:23:43,822 --> 00:23:45,551 lt seems to have been like this. 228 00:23:45,857 --> 00:23:51,124 Three infantry brigades, Amyntas, Philotas and Coenus, 229 00:23:51,329 --> 00:23:54,264 were to go straight ahead, on down into the plain, 230 00:23:54,466 --> 00:24:00,063 to bridge the river which the Macedonians would have to cross in order to get fast to Persepolis. 231 00:24:00,439 --> 00:24:04,671 Alexander himself with three squadrons of cavalry, including the Companions, 232 00:24:04,876 --> 00:24:08,903 one infantry brigade and light-armed skirmishers and archers, 233 00:24:09,114 --> 00:24:13,050 maybe 4,000-odd troops, was to head straight over there, 234 00:24:13,318 --> 00:24:16,685 round to the back of the pass, behind the Persian position. 235 00:24:17,088 --> 00:24:22,025 And 3,000 infantry, under the general Ptolemy, were to be left just here. 236 00:24:22,227 --> 00:24:25,526 These were probably the specialist long shields 237 00:24:25,730 --> 00:24:29,427 who were part of the old Macedonian royal bodyguard. 238 00:24:31,102 --> 00:24:33,195 So, in the dead of night, 239 00:24:33,839 --> 00:24:39,937 the last stages of this incredibly risky and dangerous operation began to unfold, 240 00:24:40,245 --> 00:24:43,408 and on them the whole fate of the war would depend. 241 00:24:48,753 --> 00:24:54,623 The path plunged down a gorge into darkness, and the brothers used an old shepherds' trick, 242 00:24:54,826 --> 00:24:58,557 cutting off strips of gum-tree bark which burn like little torches. 243 00:25:09,007 --> 00:25:11,339 This was the worst part now, says Curtius. 244 00:25:11,543 --> 00:25:14,205 There was snow and the darkness was terrifying. 245 00:25:21,253 --> 00:25:23,721 - OK? Are we all ready? - Yes. 246 00:25:25,323 --> 00:25:30,556 Some of the Macedonians began to despair and a few of the boys even started to cry. 247 00:25:41,406 --> 00:25:44,637 But at moments like this, says Arrian, 248 00:25:44,843 --> 00:25:47,641 Alexander had the wonderful knack of cheering his men, 249 00:25:48,013 --> 00:25:51,312 calming their fears by his fearlessness. 250 00:26:07,999 --> 00:26:12,561 Soon after dawn, we came down into the middle of the Persian Gates. 251 00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:31,614 Alexander's desperate gamble had paid off. 252 00:26:36,261 --> 00:26:40,857 By the early hours, his night march had taken him right round to the back of the pass, 253 00:26:41,066 --> 00:26:42,829 behind the Persian position. 254 00:26:44,202 --> 00:26:49,299 Just before dawn, Alexander launched his attack on the rear of Ariobarzanes' defences. 255 00:26:50,008 --> 00:26:52,977 At the same time, the Macedonians sent their trumpet signals 256 00:26:53,178 --> 00:26:57,706 all the way down the pass to Craterus, who now moved his troops up 257 00:26:57,916 --> 00:27:01,181 to attack the wall where the Macedonians had been beaten the previous day. 258 00:27:01,519 --> 00:27:04,249 So the Persians were now caught in a pincer movement. 259 00:27:04,689 --> 00:27:08,557 They fell back on their inner defences here at this place, 260 00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:11,729 Charguch, place where four ways meet. 261 00:27:11,997 --> 00:27:14,522 Then Alexander launched the decisive stroke. 262 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,663 Ptolemy and his 3,000 infantry had been left behind 263 00:27:18,870 --> 00:27:22,499 to come down the gorge where we came during the night. 264 00:27:22,707 --> 00:27:26,006 He launched his attack on the side of the Persian position. 265 00:27:26,444 --> 00:27:28,241 They were trapped on all sides. 266 00:27:30,015 --> 00:27:33,542 The Persians fought bravely, but they were overwhelmed. 267 00:27:37,522 --> 00:27:39,752 As for the shepherd who'd guided him that night, 268 00:27:39,958 --> 00:27:42,859 Alexander gave him 30 talents of silver, 269 00:27:43,061 --> 00:27:44,528 a quarter of a million dollars. 270 00:27:45,230 --> 00:27:46,458 He'd been worth every penny. 271 00:27:47,699 --> 00:27:50,224 Could l have another chai? 272 00:27:50,702 --> 00:27:52,499 Even our guides were impressed. 273 00:27:54,339 --> 00:27:57,137 ''But if l had Alexander here now,'' said one of them, 274 00:27:57,475 --> 00:28:00,706 ''l'd like to chop him into little pieces for what he did to lran.'' 275 00:28:20,732 --> 00:28:23,360 The road to Persepolis lay open. 276 00:28:30,375 --> 00:28:32,206 The most hated city in the world, 277 00:28:32,410 --> 00:28:35,470 Alexander had called it at the start of his crusade. 278 00:28:36,081 --> 00:28:39,244 Now he walked unopposed into the great palace. 279 00:28:43,822 --> 00:28:47,087 ln these vast reception halls, 10,000 courtiers 280 00:28:47,358 --> 00:28:50,088 used to gather to greet the Persian New Year. 281 00:28:57,302 --> 00:29:00,396 Ambassadors from 35 countries had queued here 282 00:29:00,538 --> 00:29:06,943 to receive the blessing of the great king and the god of wisdom, Ahura Mazda. 283 00:29:13,785 --> 00:29:18,745 Here had come lonian Greeks bearing gifts of dyed cloths and beehives. 284 00:29:22,527 --> 00:29:25,223 lndians with humpbacked calves. 285 00:29:25,930 --> 00:29:29,923 Scythians from Central Asia with gold and fine clothes. 286 00:29:34,973 --> 00:29:38,204 This was what it meant to be a king. 287 00:29:50,622 --> 00:29:55,924 ln the royal apartments, Alexander would have seen images of the great kings from the Persian past. 288 00:29:59,831 --> 00:30:03,028 Portrayed in all the majesty of Persian kingship. 289 00:30:03,234 --> 00:30:06,726 There's the tiara studded with gold adornments. 290 00:30:06,938 --> 00:30:08,838 These would have been real gold bracelets, 291 00:30:09,073 --> 00:30:11,303 presumably ripped out by the Greeks. 292 00:30:11,509 --> 00:30:15,411 He would have had facial cosmetics, the beautifully curled beard, 293 00:30:15,613 --> 00:30:18,980 and attended by all the flunkies of the court: 294 00:30:19,184 --> 00:30:22,642 the bearer of the ointment pot and the towel 295 00:30:22,854 --> 00:30:25,516 and the fly whisk and the sunshade. 296 00:30:25,824 --> 00:30:31,387 To the Greeks, this must have reinforced all their stereotypes about Oriental people 297 00:30:31,596 --> 00:30:33,154 and their political systems. 298 00:30:33,364 --> 00:30:35,798 lt was Oriental tyranny personified. 299 00:30:39,571 --> 00:30:43,871 But this, we always have to remember, is a tale told by the victors. 300 00:30:44,409 --> 00:30:47,936 ln Persian eyes, their state was the embodiment ofjustice, 301 00:30:48,313 --> 00:30:51,544 guided by the god of wisdom, Ahura Mazda. 302 00:30:58,590 --> 00:31:03,254 Alexander had moved on Persepolis so fast that he found the treasury intact; 303 00:31:03,461 --> 00:31:06,430 3,000 tons of gold and silver bullion, 304 00:31:06,731 --> 00:31:09,131 more than the reserves in Fort Knox. 305 00:31:09,701 --> 00:31:12,636 lnto his hands had fallen the greatest treasure in history. 306 00:31:12,837 --> 00:31:15,499 He could finance any war he wished now, 307 00:31:15,773 --> 00:31:17,832 even to the ends of the earth. 308 00:31:30,321 --> 00:31:35,588 - Hello. Thank you very much. - Thank you. That's lovely. 309 00:31:35,827 --> 00:31:39,228 That night, l stayed in the old hotel below the palace ruins, 310 00:31:39,430 --> 00:31:42,228 just where Alexander must have pitched his tent. 311 00:31:42,934 --> 00:31:45,334 He waited here now for three months. 312 00:31:46,170 --> 00:31:48,161 Darius was still at large in the north 313 00:31:48,373 --> 00:31:52,571 and no Persians came to acknowledge Alexander as king. 314 00:31:53,311 --> 00:31:57,179 There were arguments among the Greeks about what to do next. 315 00:31:59,317 --> 00:32:03,310 Especially over the palace, the symbol of Persian power. 316 00:32:03,988 --> 00:32:06,923 Some thought the crimes committed by the Persian kings 317 00:32:07,125 --> 00:32:11,459 in Greece 150 years before required further punishment. 318 00:32:11,996 --> 00:32:14,328 No one knows precisely what happened next, 319 00:32:14,599 --> 00:32:19,764 but the legend told by the Greek historians was so famous it has become fact. 320 00:32:36,688 --> 00:32:41,716 The night Persepolis was destroyed, King Alexander attended a drinking party with friends, 321 00:32:41,926 --> 00:32:44,258 perhaps in the tents below the palace. 322 00:32:44,629 --> 00:32:46,187 There were many women present, 323 00:32:47,298 --> 00:32:50,563 courtesans, mistresses of the generals. 324 00:32:51,102 --> 00:32:55,596 A huge amount of wine was consumed and everybody got very, very drunk. 325 00:32:56,407 --> 00:32:59,001 And then one of the women spoke up. 326 00:32:59,911 --> 00:33:03,870 She was an Athenian. Her name was Thais. 327 00:33:05,149 --> 00:33:10,086 After all the king's great achievements in Asia, she said, it would be the crowning glory 328 00:33:10,321 --> 00:33:14,451 if he allowed his friends to burn the palace down, 329 00:33:15,126 --> 00:33:18,061 to avenge what the Persians had done in Greece 330 00:33:18,796 --> 00:33:23,460 and to allow women's hands to extinguish the glory of King Xerxes. 331 00:33:23,835 --> 00:33:28,772 And with those words, it's said, the king himself took fire. 332 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:32,307 The procession was formed, the torches were lit 333 00:33:32,510 --> 00:33:35,001 and the flute girls struck up a tune. 334 00:33:35,213 --> 00:33:40,412 The drunken revellers reeled up the great staircase and into the palace. 335 00:33:40,618 --> 00:33:45,282 After King Alexander, Thais was the first person to throw her torch into the state rooms. 336 00:33:46,524 --> 00:33:52,360 lmagine it, the fire running up gilded curtains to the cedar-wood roof. 337 00:33:53,164 --> 00:33:57,464 ln no time at all, this great building was engulfed in fire. 338 00:34:15,453 --> 00:34:17,751 But that still is the Greek story. 339 00:34:17,989 --> 00:34:19,752 How did the Persians see it? 340 00:34:21,893 --> 00:34:25,158 Deep in the mountains fringing lran's Great Salt Desert, 341 00:34:25,396 --> 00:34:27,956 there's a shrine by a sacred spring. 342 00:34:44,849 --> 00:34:47,010 These people are Zoroastrians, 343 00:34:47,218 --> 00:34:49,618 the followers of the ancient religion of lran, 344 00:34:50,254 --> 00:34:52,950 older by far than Christianity or lslam. 345 00:35:03,968 --> 00:35:09,634 And the Zoroastrians have preserved the Persian story of Alexander's conquest. 346 00:35:13,678 --> 00:35:17,478 Their prophet, Zoroaster, who lived 1,000 years before Alexander, 347 00:35:17,682 --> 00:35:20,242 had been praised by the king's teacher, Aristotle. 348 00:35:21,052 --> 00:35:24,647 But Alexander would never meet with the magi, the Persian priests. 349 00:35:25,189 --> 00:35:27,384 He never made offerings to their god, 350 00:35:27,892 --> 00:35:31,123 even though Arrian says he was usually so careful of religion. 351 00:35:46,043 --> 00:35:48,978 ln fact, the Zoroastrians say he persecuted them 352 00:35:49,213 --> 00:35:51,181 and desecrated their temples. 353 00:36:01,659 --> 00:36:07,928 So did Alexander continue his campaign of revenge against the religion of Persia and its followers? 354 00:36:08,432 --> 00:36:11,560 On this, the Greek historians say nothing. 355 00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:24,939 But that night, in the heart of old lran, 356 00:36:25,149 --> 00:36:31,952 even after 2,300 years, the Zoroastrians told the story as if it had happened only yesterday. 357 00:36:34,091 --> 00:36:39,324 As you know, and we accept this, we know he was a great military man, 358 00:36:40,331 --> 00:36:46,566 and he conquered many little countries and finally he defeated our empire. 359 00:36:46,771 --> 00:36:49,797 And he took over the palace of Persepolis. 360 00:36:50,208 --> 00:36:54,042 He burned down the palace and he got drunk and, again, 361 00:36:54,312 --> 00:36:56,439 he slaughtered our priests. 362 00:36:56,747 --> 00:37:03,585 He forced our youngsters, girls and boys, to marry Greek soldiers. 363 00:37:03,854 --> 00:37:11,556 And, worst of all, he burned our scriptures, our religion bible, 364 00:37:11,762 --> 00:37:15,528 which is called Gatha, and it's the word of our prophet, Zoroaster. 365 00:37:15,833 --> 00:37:17,664 And that was a disaster. 366 00:37:17,868 --> 00:37:22,271 They might call him Great Alexander, 367 00:37:22,506 --> 00:37:26,943 but in our world we just say this chap was a devil. 368 00:37:27,178 --> 00:37:33,913 ln Zoroastrian we say Alexander Gujaste. That means Alexander the Accursed. 369 00:37:50,334 --> 00:37:52,996 That night, the Zoroastrians told me another story. 370 00:37:53,371 --> 00:37:58,172 The sacred fire which burned at Persepolis was never snuffed out. 371 00:38:05,082 --> 00:38:08,415 For more than 2,000 years, they believe it's been kept alive, 372 00:38:08,619 --> 00:38:10,280 carried from place to place. 373 00:38:10,655 --> 00:38:14,489 And today, in a village in the Yazd plain, it still burns, 374 00:38:15,092 --> 00:38:17,617 the fire before which Darius worshipped. 375 00:38:49,660 --> 00:38:51,821 At the moment of Alexander's triumph, 376 00:38:52,029 --> 00:38:54,759 a Zoroastrian priest gave an oracle, 377 00:38:54,965 --> 00:38:58,924 a prophecy about the wicked Alexander and his fate. 378 00:39:00,404 --> 00:39:04,033 ''All Asia will suffer his evil yoke,'' it said, 379 00:39:04,709 --> 00:39:06,540 ''for he's the devil's disciple, 380 00:39:07,078 --> 00:39:09,546 ''and our earth will be deluged in blood. 381 00:39:14,585 --> 00:39:19,989 ''But, in the end, those whom he wishes to destroy will destroy him 382 00:39:20,524 --> 00:39:23,584 ''and he will be swept from the land of Persia.'' 383 00:39:36,574 --> 00:39:41,034 ln the early summer, Alexander moved north to try to capture King Darius. 384 00:39:45,916 --> 00:39:49,147 We followed him on the road to lsfahan. 385 00:40:06,070 --> 00:40:11,007 Here he heard the news that Darius had decided to flee eastwards towards Afghanistan. 386 00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:24,781 ln the tea houses of lsfahan, 387 00:40:24,989 --> 00:40:28,823 the storytellers can still tell the tale of Darius's last days. 388 00:41:02,793 --> 00:41:07,162 Alexander's final pursuit of Darius took him along old caravan routes 389 00:41:07,364 --> 00:41:10,595 little used now, save by long-distance lorry drivers, 390 00:41:11,068 --> 00:41:12,831 one of whom offered to take us. 391 00:41:23,714 --> 00:41:28,413 Alexander set a punishing pace; 400 miles in 11 days. 392 00:41:28,619 --> 00:41:32,111 More than half his horses died in the summer heat. 393 00:41:38,062 --> 00:41:40,189 The old route leads past Tehran 394 00:41:40,464 --> 00:41:43,433 and on through the pass known as the Caspian Gates. 395 00:41:44,502 --> 00:41:46,868 At the end of each day's march was a waterhole. 396 00:41:47,338 --> 00:41:51,741 You can still find them marked by the ruins of the medieval caravanserais. 397 00:41:53,844 --> 00:41:55,812 So this is the ancient road. 398 00:41:56,213 --> 00:42:01,310 And there are still old caravanserai buildings all along this route, are there? 399 00:42:07,491 --> 00:42:09,459 Yes, these caravanserais are on the route. 400 00:42:10,261 --> 00:42:15,494 - Do you ever stay in them? - Yes. 401 00:42:20,838 --> 00:42:25,332 He sometimes stops at the caravanserai when he's travelling to Mashhad. 402 00:42:27,378 --> 00:42:28,606 For a rest, he stops there. 403 00:42:28,846 --> 00:42:31,041 So the old system still works. 404 00:42:35,152 --> 00:42:37,677 The old stopping places are all deserted now, 405 00:42:37,922 --> 00:42:41,653 but just off the old Mashhad road, we halted at one. 406 00:42:50,367 --> 00:42:54,963 Darius must have camped somewhere like this on his last tragic night. 407 00:43:02,079 --> 00:43:06,243 Then he and the desperate Persian nobles held a war council. 408 00:43:06,717 --> 00:43:10,084 They said they wanted a new leader, a fresh start. 409 00:43:20,030 --> 00:43:25,229 They proposed that for now the king's kinsman Bessus should take over the reins of power. 410 00:43:25,436 --> 00:43:29,600 Perhaps, they said, God may then look upon us with more favour. 411 00:43:40,184 --> 00:43:42,550 Darius refused to give up the throne, 412 00:43:42,753 --> 00:43:45,483 and they arrested him and bound him in golden chains. 413 00:43:46,890 --> 00:43:49,723 And then from the royal tent came the sound of wailing 414 00:43:50,227 --> 00:43:55,529 as the king's servants wept for their king and for their whole world. 415 00:44:28,899 --> 00:44:33,268 When Alexander heard that Darius had been deposed and was only just ahead, 416 00:44:33,537 --> 00:44:36,028 he drove his weary troops on through the night. 417 00:44:41,578 --> 00:44:44,342 To follow his route, we picked up the slow train to Mashhad. 418 00:44:44,548 --> 00:44:47,540 How long now between Semnan and Gerd Ab? 419 00:44:50,521 --> 00:44:52,921 - One hour. - Just one hour. 420 00:44:55,426 --> 00:44:59,829 The route that Alexander took in that last dash to try and overtake Darius 421 00:45:00,030 --> 00:45:01,190 has never been discovered, 422 00:45:01,398 --> 00:45:03,161 but when you look at the map, it's obvious. 423 00:45:03,367 --> 00:45:08,361 The railway contractors faced exactly the same problem: 424 00:45:08,572 --> 00:45:09,698 how to avoid the mountain. 425 00:45:09,907 --> 00:45:11,898 They needed the easiest gradient possible. 426 00:45:12,109 --> 00:45:14,009 Their solution was to throw 427 00:45:14,211 --> 00:45:18,807 their track out in a great loop south of the mountains into the desert. 428 00:45:19,316 --> 00:45:21,580 lt's longer, about 50 miles, 429 00:45:22,019 --> 00:45:25,511 exactly the distance the Greeks said Alexander covered that night. 430 00:45:26,023 --> 00:45:33,725 But it's quicker, and it leads to a little railway halt in the middle of nowhere called Gerd Ab. 431 00:45:44,441 --> 00:45:48,775 Just below the station is a long-dried-up wadi which circles the hills. 432 00:45:49,213 --> 00:45:50,805 lt's good riding country, this. 433 00:45:51,081 --> 00:45:53,743 Easy to imagine Alexander coming through here, 434 00:45:53,984 --> 00:45:57,283 harness jangling, muffled commands in Greek. 435 00:46:05,529 --> 00:46:08,692 At first light, Alexander caught up with the Persians. 436 00:46:10,334 --> 00:46:12,894 Bessus and the others told Darius to ride on. 437 00:46:13,137 --> 00:46:15,901 He refused and they stabbed him and fled. 438 00:46:17,141 --> 00:46:19,974 They left him to die at a waterhole just off the road. 439 00:46:25,816 --> 00:46:28,148 As Alexander rode on, searching for Darius, 440 00:46:28,418 --> 00:46:31,012 an ordinary Greek soldier called Polystratus 441 00:46:31,221 --> 00:46:34,418 walked down to the pool to quench his thirst. 442 00:46:41,732 --> 00:46:45,532 By the edge of the pool Polystratus saw a covered wagon, 443 00:46:45,736 --> 00:46:47,670 the animals wounded with spears. 444 00:46:47,938 --> 00:46:49,405 He went over and lifted the cover 445 00:46:49,606 --> 00:46:53,007 and inside, covered in blood, was Darius himself, 446 00:46:53,210 --> 00:46:55,701 the great king, at the point of death. 447 00:46:55,913 --> 00:46:59,349 Polystratus filled his helmet with water and gave the king a drink. 448 00:46:59,550 --> 00:47:03,782 Then Darius held his hand and gave him a message to take to Alexander. 449 00:47:04,154 --> 00:47:09,592 He thanked him for treating his mother and his wife and children so honourably. 450 00:47:09,827 --> 00:47:11,954 A very Persian thing to say, that is. 451 00:47:12,229 --> 00:47:16,723 He also gave a prayer, hoping the gods would look favourably on Alexander, 452 00:47:16,934 --> 00:47:20,995 and that he, in his turn, would rule the earth just as Darius had done. 453 00:47:21,772 --> 00:47:23,467 Then Darius died. 454 00:47:24,007 --> 00:47:26,032 The exact spot has never been found. 455 00:47:27,511 --> 00:47:30,480 But it was here, surely, at Ab Hore, 456 00:47:30,681 --> 00:47:33,673 which means the place where you can find drinking water. 457 00:47:45,229 --> 00:47:49,256 The legend of Darius's death is still told by the last of the tale-tellers 458 00:47:49,466 --> 00:47:53,095 who used to travel the back roads of lran with their painted backdrops. 459 00:48:09,987 --> 00:48:13,946 This version of the tale has been told in lran for at least 1,000 years. 460 00:48:49,026 --> 00:48:52,018 The king is dead. Long live the king. 461 00:48:56,466 --> 00:48:59,435 Now Alexander was Lord of Asia. 462 00:49:00,070 --> 00:49:03,005 He camped here at the ancient city of Hecatompylos. 463 00:49:03,206 --> 00:49:06,801 His troops were elated. The war was over. They could go home. 464 00:49:09,179 --> 00:49:11,238 Alexander, though, had other ideas. 465 00:49:11,481 --> 00:49:12,846 He addressed the army. 466 00:49:13,317 --> 00:49:17,219 Alexander began his speech by looking back over the four years of conquest 467 00:49:17,421 --> 00:49:20,948 which had brought them from the Balkans to Afghanistan. 468 00:49:21,258 --> 00:49:23,021 lt had been a long haul. 469 00:49:23,293 --> 00:49:27,923 ''You want to go home,'' he said. ''l understand.'' Milking them for sentiment. 470 00:49:28,131 --> 00:49:32,329 ''l want to go home, too. l'd like to see my mother again and my loved ones. 471 00:49:33,070 --> 00:49:37,131 ''But if we go back now, everything will be lost. 472 00:49:37,541 --> 00:49:39,133 ''We may have won the military battle, 473 00:49:39,343 --> 00:49:42,369 but the battle for hearts and minds is just beginning. 474 00:49:42,646 --> 00:49:47,413 ''You don't think the Persians are gonna lie down and accept Greek rule just like that? 475 00:49:47,784 --> 00:49:49,615 ''lt's the beginning of a long process. 476 00:49:50,020 --> 00:49:54,013 ''Besides, the murderers of Darius are still at large. 477 00:49:54,224 --> 00:49:56,852 ''Bessus is claiming to be king of the Persians. 478 00:49:57,060 --> 00:50:02,054 ''lf we go back, he'll consolidate his power, raise an army. He'll be knocking at our back door. 479 00:50:02,499 --> 00:50:08,870 ''No. Either we let it all go or we go on to take everything. 480 00:50:09,940 --> 00:50:12,500 ''Look, boys,'' you can imagine him saying. 481 00:50:12,709 --> 00:50:16,338 ''lt's only a four-day march to catch up with them.'' 482 00:50:16,546 --> 00:50:18,912 Lying in his teeth about what lay ahead. 483 00:50:19,182 --> 00:50:24,279 ''Nothing for you. Nothing for men who've crossed so many mountains and rivers. 484 00:50:24,488 --> 00:50:30,893 ''Come on. We're on the threshold of victory and eternal fame.'' 485 00:50:36,333 --> 00:50:39,097 Once again, Alexander had won them over. 486 00:50:39,603 --> 00:50:43,562 They camped north of the Elburz mountains in what's now Turkoman country. 487 00:50:43,974 --> 00:50:48,411 They've always bred fine horses here and Alexander could make good his losses. 488 00:50:53,650 --> 00:50:57,211 To keep up morale, he held games; horse racing and wrestling. 489 00:51:07,130 --> 00:51:08,757 But as the army enjoyed itself, 490 00:51:08,965 --> 00:51:12,162 there were nagging worries about the king's real plans. 491 00:51:12,836 --> 00:51:17,569 The rumour had now spread that he really wanted to go on and conquer the whole world. 492 00:51:27,651 --> 00:51:31,485 Alexander announced that he planned to train thousands of Persian boys 493 00:51:31,688 --> 00:51:37,217 as Macedonian cavalrymen, and he himself began to wear Persian robes. 494 00:51:37,594 --> 00:51:40,085 He was going Persian, the veterans grumbled. 495 00:51:40,297 --> 00:51:42,060 This wasn't what they'd fought for. 496 00:51:46,036 --> 00:51:50,439 To placate them, Alexander said his men could now marry their women captives 497 00:51:50,640 --> 00:51:52,835 and take them on the campaign eastwards. 498 00:51:57,214 --> 00:52:01,742 But that only suggested that they might never see their own families again. 499 00:52:06,256 --> 00:52:10,886 Slowly but surely, links with Macedonia were being cut. 500 00:52:31,615 --> 00:52:34,778 That night, the Turkomans told me tales of Alexander, 501 00:52:35,085 --> 00:52:36,985 who's one of their great folk heroes. 502 00:52:44,161 --> 00:52:48,222 Like Muslims right across Asia, they call him the two-horned one. 503 00:53:08,718 --> 00:53:12,017 To them, Alexander's an almost supernatural figure; 504 00:53:12,222 --> 00:53:14,622 magician, magus, superman. 505 00:53:26,036 --> 00:53:27,867 ln their songs, Alexander climbs the heavens, 506 00:53:28,071 --> 00:53:31,438 plumbs the oceans and finds the spring of eternal life. 507 00:53:32,209 --> 00:53:34,541 And he meets a tribe of female warriors, 508 00:53:34,811 --> 00:53:37,041 just as he does in a famous Greek tale. 509 00:53:39,516 --> 00:53:43,043 One day, an extraordinary visitor rode into the Greek camp, 510 00:53:43,253 --> 00:53:46,950 an Amazon queen who ruled a tribe only of women. 511 00:53:47,324 --> 00:53:51,124 She came with 300 armed female warriors. 512 00:53:51,928 --> 00:53:57,764 To the amazement of the Greeks, she rode straight up to Alexander and leapt off her horse. 513 00:53:58,635 --> 00:54:00,626 Alexander said, ''Why have you come?'' 514 00:54:01,204 --> 00:54:04,469 And she said, ''l've come to have a child by you. 515 00:54:04,741 --> 00:54:06,538 ''You're the greatest conqueror and 516 00:54:06,743 --> 00:54:10,611 l'm superior to any woman in courage and strength, 517 00:54:10,814 --> 00:54:13,442 ''so imagine what child we could have between us.'' 518 00:54:14,084 --> 00:54:17,247 Many ill-matched couples have made that mistake in history. 519 00:54:17,554 --> 00:54:19,715 But Alexander, of course, was delighted. 520 00:54:21,024 --> 00:54:27,259 But the historian Curtius says his appetite was not as great as hers 521 00:54:27,464 --> 00:54:30,797 and he spent 13 days trying to satisfy her. 522 00:54:31,268 --> 00:54:35,534 Finally, he gave her rich presents and off she went back to her own country 523 00:54:35,772 --> 00:54:40,209 and he went back over the Elburz mountains and headed towards Afghanistan. 524 00:54:54,958 --> 00:55:01,591 Before he marched east, Alexander moved into the northernmost province of lran by the Caspian Sea. 525 00:55:04,267 --> 00:55:09,364 And riding in his track, we entered ancient Hyrcania, the land of wolves. 526 00:55:12,642 --> 00:55:14,507 Our guide was Louise Firoz, 527 00:55:14,744 --> 00:55:17,542 who's lived out here with the Turkomans for 30 years. 528 00:55:27,457 --> 00:55:29,789 Our goal was Alexander's Wall, 529 00:55:30,193 --> 00:55:34,186 an ancient defence work like Hadrian's Wall or the Great Wall of China, 530 00:55:34,397 --> 00:55:38,959 which legend says was built by Alexander to mark the northern edge of his empire. 531 00:55:41,271 --> 00:55:44,934 Off to your right is the beginning of Central Asia here, 532 00:55:45,241 --> 00:55:48,733 and on the left, on the other side of Alexander's Wall, 533 00:55:48,945 --> 00:55:50,708 is the beginning of the Middle East. 534 00:55:50,980 --> 00:55:53,448 This encloses the sweet water 535 00:55:55,185 --> 00:55:59,554 on this side with the Elburz mountains and its springs, 536 00:55:59,789 --> 00:56:05,455 and on this side you have nothing but brackish springs, and very few of those, also. 537 00:56:05,662 --> 00:56:07,562 So that's civilisation and this is nomads, 538 00:56:07,764 --> 00:56:10,232 - the great divide of history. - Yes 539 00:56:29,386 --> 00:56:32,480 And so more than three years after they'd left Greece, 540 00:56:32,722 --> 00:56:36,522 the Macedonian army reached the shores of the Caspian Sea. 541 00:56:43,566 --> 00:56:48,594 Well, after a year's campaigning in lraq and lran, 542 00:56:48,805 --> 00:56:50,773 it must have felt good to get to the seaside. 543 00:56:51,074 --> 00:56:53,941 No doubt they all had a swim on this beach. 544 00:56:54,144 --> 00:56:57,443 We know they tasted the water, because the Greeks mention 545 00:56:57,647 --> 00:57:01,447 that they found it a lot less salty than the Mediterranean. 546 00:57:01,985 --> 00:57:04,112 That should have told them something. 547 00:57:04,354 --> 00:57:09,223 Here, for the first time in the expedition, they reached the limits of their knowledge. 548 00:57:09,426 --> 00:57:14,363 They didn't know, as we do, that the Caspian is a landlocked sea. 549 00:57:14,597 --> 00:57:17,623 For all they knew, and all the fisherman could tell them, 550 00:57:17,834 --> 00:57:21,292 this was simply a gulf of the great ocean 551 00:57:21,504 --> 00:57:25,440 which encircled the whole of the inhabited earth: Europe, Africa and Asia. 552 00:57:25,742 --> 00:57:31,339 You could sail out there and turn off to the left and go all the way round to northern Europe. 553 00:57:31,548 --> 00:57:35,006 You could sail off that way all the way round the world to lndia. 554 00:57:35,485 --> 00:57:41,446 lt was the first hint, perhaps, that the world was a lot bigger than they could ever have imagined. 555 00:57:46,930 --> 00:57:49,558 For the moment, that knowledge eluded him. 556 00:57:50,066 --> 00:57:52,398 But it was in Alexander's nature, says Arrian, 557 00:57:52,602 --> 00:57:55,400 to search far beyond into the unknown. 558 00:57:55,738 --> 00:57:58,673 Soon the goal of his expedition would begin to change, 559 00:57:58,942 --> 00:58:01,911 as the prospect of a bigger world beckoned. 560 00:58:03,947 --> 00:58:08,907 But that was in the future. Ahead of him now lay Afghanistan.