1 00:00:05,038 --> 00:00:06,665 2,300 years ago, 2 00:00:06,873 --> 00:00:09,034 Alexander the Great invaded Asia, 3 00:00:09,342 --> 00:00:11,606 his goal to conquer the Persian Empire. 4 00:00:12,612 --> 00:00:14,079 We followed in his footsteps, 5 00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:18,148 a 20,000-mile journey from Greece to the plains of lndia. 6 00:00:23,690 --> 00:00:24,987 By the fifth year of the war, 7 00:00:25,258 --> 00:00:28,318 Persia had fallen and the Persian king had been killed. 8 00:00:29,929 --> 00:00:33,922 Alexander now set out to overrun their vast eastern empire, 9 00:00:34,167 --> 00:00:35,930 and he headed for Afghanistan. 10 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:22,111 Kabul, Afghanistan. 11 00:01:23,450 --> 00:01:26,351 Ourjourney now brought us into a modern-day war. 12 00:01:33,326 --> 00:01:35,556 A crossroads on the ancient routes to lndia, 13 00:01:35,762 --> 00:01:39,061 Kabul has been a battleground for more than 2,000 years. 14 00:01:45,138 --> 00:01:47,606 The city had been devastated by war. 15 00:01:51,244 --> 00:01:54,236 Alexander wintered here in the fifth year of his campaign. 16 00:01:54,881 --> 00:01:58,840 He founded a new city close by, another Alexandria, 17 00:01:59,285 --> 00:02:01,116 one more step to uniting the world 18 00:02:01,321 --> 00:02:02,583 under Greek rule. 19 00:02:03,423 --> 00:02:04,822 For his teacher Aristotle 20 00:02:05,024 --> 00:02:09,051 had taught him it was fitting the Greeks should rule barbarians. 21 00:02:13,733 --> 00:02:15,860 Settled with Greek and native colonists, 22 00:02:16,069 --> 00:02:19,004 Alexander's city would foster a remarkable mixed culture, 23 00:02:19,205 --> 00:02:20,672 Greek and Asiatic. 24 00:02:20,940 --> 00:02:23,670 l was hoping to see its treasures in Kabul Museum... 25 00:02:25,745 --> 00:02:27,110 ...but that rich legacy, 26 00:02:27,447 --> 00:02:29,938 the glass from Egypt, the ivories from lndia, 27 00:02:30,150 --> 00:02:32,641 Chinese lacquer, was all gone. 28 00:02:59,879 --> 00:03:02,541 What's left is locked down in the cellars, 29 00:03:02,849 --> 00:03:05,477 and even that has been looted and smashed. 30 00:03:12,091 --> 00:03:13,581 How did you feel when you saw this? 31 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:23,628 'When we saw all this,' the museum director said, 32 00:03:23,970 --> 00:03:26,200 'it was as if our mother and father had died. 33 00:03:26,606 --> 00:03:28,597 Our whole history was here.' 34 00:03:33,479 --> 00:03:38,576 Goodness me, look, a Buddhist head. 35 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:41,950 Look at that. 36 00:03:49,929 --> 00:03:54,764 Look, here's a Greek period Buddha. 37 00:03:56,536 --> 00:04:02,065 He's wearing a Greek toga, the kind of fusion of East and West, 38 00:04:02,775 --> 00:04:05,471 that happened in the arts, too, in Afghanistan. 39 00:04:08,314 --> 00:04:10,976 This was an absolutely unique civilisation, 40 00:04:11,551 --> 00:04:13,018 and this museum 41 00:04:13,419 --> 00:04:15,683 was the chief record of it in the world. 42 00:04:16,823 --> 00:04:18,688 Hmm, it's just heartbreaking. 43 00:04:23,229 --> 00:04:25,891 lt was a sombre introduction to Afghan history, 44 00:04:26,232 --> 00:04:27,824 but this is a tale of war 45 00:04:28,034 --> 00:04:31,470 and war destroys the past as well as the present. 46 00:04:55,495 --> 00:04:59,261 Now we had no idea what to expect on the road ahead. 47 00:05:03,770 --> 00:05:05,431 As Alexander saw it that winter, 48 00:05:05,638 --> 00:05:08,766 the eastern part of the Persian Empire was still unconquered. 49 00:05:09,776 --> 00:05:10,970 The Greek historian, Arian, 50 00:05:11,177 --> 00:05:12,838 says a Persian nobleman, Bessus, 51 00:05:13,046 --> 00:05:16,777 had proclaimed himself King of Asia and was rallying resistance. 52 00:05:17,050 --> 00:05:20,076 lt was Bessus who had murdered the previous king, Darius. 53 00:05:20,453 --> 00:05:23,513 Now, he'd retreated north beyond the Hindu Kush mountains, 54 00:05:23,790 --> 00:05:27,055 thinking Alexander wouldn't try to cross till the snows had gone. 55 00:05:29,362 --> 00:05:31,296 Alexander took up the challenge. 56 00:05:44,243 --> 00:05:46,643 The next stage of ourjourney was to follow Alexander 57 00:05:46,846 --> 00:05:48,177 over the Hindu Kush... 58 00:05:48,381 --> 00:05:50,679 ...but to get out there, we needed a vehicle. 59 00:05:52,452 --> 00:05:54,283 Hmm, certainly is a Land Rover. 60 00:06:01,194 --> 00:06:04,220 So, do you think we'll get all the way up the Panshir with this? 61 00:06:06,232 --> 00:06:06,960 Yes, l'm sure. 62 00:06:07,166 --> 00:06:11,034 - Really? - Of course, all of Afghanistan. 63 00:06:11,237 --> 00:06:12,261 Really? 64 00:06:13,940 --> 00:06:16,465 So you're the expert then, are you, Mr. Dolmain? 65 00:06:18,978 --> 00:06:22,072 Alexander had burned his wagons when he entered Afghanistan. 66 00:06:22,281 --> 00:06:24,511 They slowed the army, they were always breaking down, 67 00:06:24,751 --> 00:06:26,150 so his troops crossed the country 68 00:06:26,352 --> 00:06:28,616 entirely on foot or horseback. 69 00:06:39,732 --> 00:06:45,432 'B.B.C.' 70 00:06:58,418 --> 00:07:00,943 Early in the spring, Alexander set off. 71 00:07:01,220 --> 00:07:03,950 Ahead of him, the great mass of the Hindu Kush, 72 00:07:04,157 --> 00:07:05,988 which rises to 20,000 ft. 73 00:07:06,359 --> 00:07:08,793 On the other side, his enemy Bessus was waiting. 74 00:07:14,167 --> 00:07:15,759 There were three main passes. 75 00:07:16,102 --> 00:07:18,935 Bessus expected Alexander to come the direct route 76 00:07:19,138 --> 00:07:20,196 and he'd devastated the land 77 00:07:20,406 --> 00:07:22,465 there to deny Alexander supplies, 78 00:07:22,708 --> 00:07:25,176 but Alexander never did what was expected. 79 00:07:25,378 --> 00:07:27,278 He chose the longer, eastern route, 80 00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:30,916 went up the Panshir Valley, heading for the Khawak Pass. 81 00:07:34,987 --> 00:07:36,454 Travelling up the Panshir Valley today, 82 00:07:36,656 --> 00:07:40,456 it's almost impossible to believe that a great army could have made its way through here, 83 00:07:40,660 --> 00:07:41,786 but they did. 84 00:07:42,028 --> 00:07:45,191 Throughout the whole of history, armies had to find a way over the Hindu Kush... 85 00:07:45,398 --> 00:07:48,094 ...and this tended to be the favourite route. 86 00:07:48,468 --> 00:07:49,901 Tamburlaine the Great, for example, 87 00:07:50,102 --> 00:07:54,903 came this way on his way from the Oxus to lndia in 1398... 88 00:07:55,308 --> 00:07:59,210 ...and your main problem, especially in the spring, was not the terrain 89 00:07:59,412 --> 00:08:02,745 but with the cold and especially the lack of food and provisions, 90 00:08:02,949 --> 00:08:06,544 and as it turned out, that was exactly the problem that Alexander faced. 91 00:08:37,316 --> 00:08:38,180 The local people had buried 92 00:08:38,384 --> 00:08:41,615 their winter supplies to foil the Macedonian foragers, 93 00:08:41,821 --> 00:08:44,551 so Alexander's men had to take their own food with them. 94 00:08:51,597 --> 00:08:53,394 OK, put the bonnet down. 95 00:08:54,333 --> 00:08:57,302 You guys want to come and push? 96 00:08:57,537 --> 00:08:59,528 Our Land Rover soon began to struggle. 97 00:09:00,072 --> 00:09:01,471 Alexander had been right: 98 00:09:01,707 --> 00:09:04,733 wheeled vehicles can be a liability on these roads. 99 00:09:26,399 --> 00:09:29,562 The Russians also found their mechanised gear failed here 100 00:09:29,769 --> 00:09:33,170 against men fighting on foot and supplied by mule. 101 00:09:41,180 --> 00:09:43,842 Eventually our Land Rover would go no further. 102 00:09:44,150 --> 00:09:45,048 Jamie, can you hear me? 103 00:09:45,251 --> 00:09:47,776 We've developed a very bad clonking noise suddenly. 104 00:09:47,987 --> 00:09:49,955 lt wounds as if it could be the half-shaft, 105 00:09:50,189 --> 00:09:52,054 so we're going to pull in, OK? 106 00:09:58,030 --> 00:09:59,520 And it wasn't the last of our problems. 107 00:09:59,899 --> 00:10:02,493 - The road is closed. - The road is closed? 108 00:10:02,702 --> 00:10:04,761 Yeah, because of landslide. 109 00:10:05,137 --> 00:10:05,865 And where is this? 110 00:10:06,072 --> 00:10:07,164 Could you ask the gentleman? 111 00:10:11,711 --> 00:10:14,544 Just after five minutes you will reach there. 112 00:10:14,747 --> 00:10:18,478 Really? And impossible for vehicles to get through or...? 113 00:10:20,820 --> 00:10:21,514 No, it's impossible. 114 00:10:21,721 --> 00:10:22,653 Only donkeys. 115 00:10:24,490 --> 00:10:27,254 l told you we should use donkeys on this part of the trip. 116 00:10:46,879 --> 00:10:49,040 How long do you think it will take a bulldozer to clear it? 117 00:10:49,248 --> 00:10:50,237 Bulldozer, one hour. 118 00:10:50,449 --> 00:10:53,850 - One hour? - One hour? 119 00:10:54,053 --> 00:10:55,816 Yes, but then they have to build the road again. 120 00:10:56,055 --> 00:10:57,352 Look, the road has gone. 121 00:11:00,660 --> 00:11:02,321 We were obviously here for the night, 122 00:11:02,528 --> 00:11:04,928 so we went back to the nearest village. 123 00:11:10,369 --> 00:11:14,237 What is the name of the village where we leave the cars 124 00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:17,637 - and we start to walk up to the pass? - Khawak. 125 00:11:17,843 --> 00:11:22,280 That's Khawak. And Khawak is after Dashti? 126 00:11:22,481 --> 00:11:23,641 - That's right. - Yeah, yeah. 127 00:11:25,718 --> 00:11:27,811 Alexander always used local guides. 128 00:11:28,020 --> 00:11:29,783 lf they did well, they were rewarded. 129 00:11:29,989 --> 00:11:31,786 lf they misled him, they were killed. 130 00:11:32,058 --> 00:11:33,491 Simple but effective. 131 00:11:40,132 --> 00:11:41,963 ls it easy to find the men with the horses? 132 00:11:53,212 --> 00:11:56,670 So Halil organises the horses. 133 00:11:56,882 --> 00:11:57,974 Commander Halil. 134 00:11:58,184 --> 00:11:59,446 Commander Halil... 135 00:11:59,652 --> 00:12:02,246 ...oh, right, right, great. 136 00:12:18,237 --> 00:12:22,230 You need the Sapper Corps to do this first. 137 00:12:29,215 --> 00:12:31,479 ln fact Alexander's sappers and engineers 138 00:12:31,684 --> 00:12:33,948 were one of the keys to his speed of movement. 139 00:12:34,153 --> 00:12:36,883 They did this kind ofjob for him all the way to lndia. 140 00:12:48,834 --> 00:12:52,793 We abandoned our Land Rover and took a lift on towards the foot of the pass. 141 00:13:09,155 --> 00:13:10,645 The track began to rise now. 142 00:13:10,923 --> 00:13:14,188 We passed travellers walking in long zigzags up the hillside. 143 00:13:14,393 --> 00:13:18,727 lt was easy to imagine the Macedonians doggedly trudging forward. 144 00:13:29,074 --> 00:13:32,771 This road was actually only made up for cars a few years ago, and... 145 00:13:32,978 --> 00:13:36,414 ...until that point, it was really a track that only horses could use, 146 00:13:36,682 --> 00:13:38,013 and although Alexander's army 147 00:13:38,217 --> 00:13:40,481 must have been able to come along the river 148 00:13:40,686 --> 00:13:44,383 valley in those wide open spaces in the early part of the Panshir. 149 00:13:44,590 --> 00:13:46,080 Here they would have been single file, 150 00:13:46,292 --> 00:13:49,557 so it would have taken them hours to pass 151 00:13:49,762 --> 00:13:50,558 any given point, 152 00:13:50,763 --> 00:13:53,323 and the army must have stretched for 10 miles, 153 00:13:53,532 --> 00:13:55,659 who knows, maybe all the way back down the Panshir, 154 00:13:55,901 --> 00:13:58,631 which explains why he took 17 days to cross. 155 00:14:21,861 --> 00:14:25,661 Finally we reached our goal, the horse station below the pass, 156 00:14:26,565 --> 00:14:28,658 and there was Commander Halil. 157 00:14:38,010 --> 00:14:39,773 lt's a bit like a Wild West out here, 158 00:14:39,979 --> 00:14:42,641 and for a moment, the atmosphere seemed threatening. 159 00:14:47,319 --> 00:14:52,586 How much does it cost per horse to take a horse over from here in Khawak 160 00:14:52,791 --> 00:14:54,816 all the way to Andola, over the pass? 161 00:15:13,078 --> 00:15:14,636 You can't tell me he doesn't know. 162 00:15:21,820 --> 00:15:26,086 - lt's the price of, per horse, is 60,000 afghani - Yeah, OK. 163 00:15:26,292 --> 00:15:27,384 ...but you are our guest, 164 00:15:27,593 --> 00:15:30,153 we will give you discount, 50,000. 165 00:15:30,362 --> 00:15:32,489 Well, that's very kind, that's very kind. 166 00:15:33,465 --> 00:15:36,901 One man will escort you to the top of pass. 167 00:15:37,102 --> 00:15:37,693 That's very kind. 168 00:15:37,903 --> 00:15:38,528 That's for your safety. 169 00:15:38,737 --> 00:15:41,831 Thank you very much indeed. OK. 170 00:15:45,177 --> 00:15:45,973 We loaded up. 171 00:15:46,178 --> 00:15:48,339 Our pack horses took 100 kilos each, 172 00:15:48,547 --> 00:15:49,639 the same as Alexander's. 173 00:15:49,982 --> 00:15:52,883 His men, though, had to carry their own gear in backpacks. 174 00:15:53,319 --> 00:15:55,446 That gets tough at high altitude. 175 00:16:29,421 --> 00:16:31,286 All along the route, to my surprise, 176 00:16:31,490 --> 00:16:32,479 we saw people: 177 00:16:32,691 --> 00:16:34,818 traders, refugees, families. 178 00:16:35,027 --> 00:16:37,052 The Khawak was still the thoroughfare to the north 179 00:16:37,262 --> 00:16:39,355 as it's been throughout history. 180 00:16:56,882 --> 00:16:58,782 That night we ate with the local commander. 181 00:16:58,984 --> 00:17:00,849 He recognised our cameraman, Peter, 182 00:17:01,053 --> 00:17:02,714 who'd covered the war with the Russians. 183 00:17:02,921 --> 00:17:03,387 We were the first 184 00:17:03,589 --> 00:17:05,557 Westerners through here since then. 185 00:17:08,861 --> 00:17:10,556 On Alexander's march, the Greeks said, 186 00:17:10,763 --> 00:17:13,391 the people here had never seen foreigners before. 187 00:17:19,638 --> 00:17:21,105 So l'll always be discreet about money. 188 00:17:26,278 --> 00:17:27,108 As Arian says, 189 00:17:27,312 --> 00:17:31,840 Alexander's mind was now totally concentrated on defeating Bessus. 190 00:17:35,020 --> 00:17:36,612 And here on the path that night, 191 00:17:37,122 --> 00:17:40,114 l could almost feel the magnetism of Alexander's leadership, 192 00:17:41,060 --> 00:17:43,551 and the sheer excitement that his men must have felt, 193 00:17:43,762 --> 00:17:44,854 marching with him. 194 00:18:22,367 --> 00:18:24,358 Next day, the track went higher, 195 00:18:24,736 --> 00:18:27,671 the air was thinner, and the land more barren. 196 00:18:36,515 --> 00:18:40,451 For us, as no doubt the Greeks, walking was now an effort. 197 00:19:01,039 --> 00:19:04,566 As the crossing went into its second week, they ran out of grain 198 00:19:04,776 --> 00:19:07,074 and started killing the pack animals for food, 199 00:19:07,479 --> 00:19:08,969 but there was no firewood for cooking, 200 00:19:09,181 --> 00:19:10,648 and they had to eat the flesh raw. 201 00:19:10,883 --> 00:19:14,319 This they did, says Arian, with the juice of a medicinal plant 202 00:19:14,586 --> 00:19:15,780 silphium. 203 00:19:16,155 --> 00:19:20,353 Can you ask which part of the plant they used for medecine? 204 00:19:32,137 --> 00:19:33,832 So you get ajuice out of it, do you? 205 00:19:41,847 --> 00:19:47,012 They used this for accident, stomach pain, and swelling. 206 00:19:47,219 --> 00:19:51,815 And for cuts as well? Yeah, yeah, yeah. 207 00:20:05,437 --> 00:20:08,463 lt's a tiny detail, but just imagine it: cold water, 208 00:20:08,674 --> 00:20:11,973 raw horse meat and the bitterjuice of the silphium. 209 00:20:25,290 --> 00:20:27,155 They were over 11,000 ft. now, 210 00:20:27,359 --> 00:20:32,126 and the starving troops were suffering from chronic fatigue brought on by altitude sickness. 211 00:20:33,532 --> 00:20:35,159 We brought few supplies with us 212 00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:37,334 and we took our snacks where we could find them. 213 00:20:38,804 --> 00:20:42,706 They said good stuff for long-distance travelling, 214 00:20:43,609 --> 00:20:47,409 the dried mulberries compressed together, 215 00:20:47,613 --> 00:20:48,545 it's kind of dried fruit 216 00:20:48,747 --> 00:20:51,181 which the Mujahadeen lived on during the war 217 00:20:51,383 --> 00:20:54,443 with the Russians in these mountains, keeps your energy up. 218 00:21:05,897 --> 00:21:08,263 At such times, Alexander was inspirational. 219 00:21:08,467 --> 00:21:10,765 He'd run up and down the column, cheering the men, 220 00:21:10,969 --> 00:21:14,928 giving a helping hand, lifting those who'd fallen, unflagging. 221 00:21:22,347 --> 00:21:24,247 Just below the summit, there was gunfire. 222 00:21:24,616 --> 00:21:25,947 Our guards raced off. 223 00:21:26,318 --> 00:21:27,615 There were bandits ahead. 224 00:21:30,455 --> 00:21:34,357 Get out of the way, it's dangerous. Come back here! 225 00:21:36,495 --> 00:21:37,553 Come here! 226 00:21:53,812 --> 00:21:55,905 Here is some highwaymen and robbers. 227 00:21:56,114 --> 00:21:59,675 They see situation favourable for the robbery 228 00:21:59,885 --> 00:22:06,882 and they take everything like food stuff and money 229 00:22:07,092 --> 00:22:08,423 they think that you have, 230 00:22:08,627 --> 00:22:10,754 yes, you should be very careful here, yes. 231 00:22:10,962 --> 00:22:12,953 So we're good targets, in other words. 232 00:22:13,165 --> 00:22:15,099 Yes. Yes, they carry on, on... 233 00:22:21,373 --> 00:22:24,069 Kalashnikov, yeah, of course. 234 00:22:32,217 --> 00:22:34,310 Half-an-hour later, we got the all clear. 235 00:22:56,575 --> 00:22:57,564 l think this is it. 236 00:23:00,479 --> 00:23:02,037 Finally, we reached the top, 237 00:23:02,314 --> 00:23:04,748 and saw the view Alexander's men had seen all 238 00:23:04,950 --> 00:23:06,212 those years before. 239 00:23:07,352 --> 00:23:09,343 - We're here? - Yeah. 240 00:23:13,959 --> 00:23:18,521 OK. Wonderful. We made it. 241 00:23:18,764 --> 00:23:21,528 The top of the Khawak Pass is about 12,000 ft. 242 00:23:21,833 --> 00:23:26,065 and there the road stretching away down to the land of Baktria 243 00:23:26,338 --> 00:23:28,670 and former Soviet Central Asia, 244 00:23:28,974 --> 00:23:31,101 and around are the mountains of the Hindu Kush. 245 00:23:31,309 --> 00:23:33,368 The Greeks knew that these mountains... 246 00:23:33,578 --> 00:23:36,274 ...were part of a continuous chain 247 00:23:36,481 --> 00:23:38,278 which split Asia in two 248 00:23:38,483 --> 00:23:40,542 and was the source of all the great rivers of Asia, 249 00:23:40,752 --> 00:23:45,052 and following Alexander's footsteps up here, with this wind, 250 00:23:45,357 --> 00:23:48,087 you can really feel, whatever you think about him, 251 00:23:48,293 --> 00:23:49,658 what an amazing achievement it was, 252 00:23:49,861 --> 00:23:51,761 to drive an army over these mountains. 253 00:23:51,963 --> 00:23:54,761 Nothing stopped him, said the historian Arian, 254 00:23:54,966 --> 00:23:56,126 nothing put him off. 255 00:23:56,334 --> 00:23:58,063 He just kept coming on and on, 256 00:23:58,270 --> 00:24:01,535 whatever the cold or the starvation, he drove on, 257 00:24:01,740 --> 00:24:06,370 and in the end, his enemies were struck with fear at the speed of his advance. 258 00:24:06,645 --> 00:24:08,442 l'll bet they were. 259 00:24:11,216 --> 00:24:14,811 Bessus was nowhere to be seen. The gamble had paid off. 260 00:24:15,020 --> 00:24:17,580 Just below the summit, a cairn of stones is said 261 00:24:17,789 --> 00:24:20,952 to mark the burial place of the Greeks who didn't make it. 262 00:24:30,469 --> 00:24:31,993 On the other side of the Hindu Kush, 263 00:24:32,204 --> 00:24:33,671 in Northern Afghanistan, 264 00:24:33,972 --> 00:24:35,769 they found good fishing in the rivers. 265 00:24:37,375 --> 00:24:39,775 There were big herds of livestock, too. 266 00:24:46,651 --> 00:24:48,209 There was plenty of grain here. 267 00:24:49,054 --> 00:24:51,648 They could draw breath and fill their bellies. 268 00:25:00,465 --> 00:25:01,124 We, though, were still 269 00:25:01,333 --> 00:25:02,994 travelling through a civil war. 270 00:25:03,468 --> 00:25:06,028 We now had to cross the lands of the local warlord, 271 00:25:06,238 --> 00:25:09,036 and there was the tricky matter of a front line to negotiate. 272 00:25:14,179 --> 00:25:17,615 l have a letter from General Haroon... 273 00:25:18,216 --> 00:25:20,013 As chance would have it, 274 00:25:20,218 --> 00:25:22,311 l'd met the head of the local garrison in London 275 00:25:22,521 --> 00:25:23,749 before we set out. 276 00:25:23,955 --> 00:25:27,015 He'd written me a letter of introduction to his front-line commander. 277 00:25:29,895 --> 00:25:30,725 OK. 278 00:25:32,464 --> 00:25:33,123 You're most welcome to? 279 00:25:33,331 --> 00:25:36,027 Oh, thank you very much indeed, thank you. 280 00:25:36,301 --> 00:25:37,563 OK, l'll wait then. 281 00:25:47,913 --> 00:25:48,937 So we waited. 282 00:25:49,681 --> 00:25:52,514 With the fundamentalist armies of the Taliban closing in on Kabul, 283 00:25:52,717 --> 00:25:55,083 we weren't too keen to retrace our steps. 284 00:26:18,343 --> 00:26:21,972 Oh, hi! Welcome to my country. Very nice to see you. 285 00:26:22,180 --> 00:26:24,410 How nice to see you. l told you when l was in London 286 00:26:24,616 --> 00:26:25,378 l would finally get here. 287 00:26:25,584 --> 00:26:27,779 Welcome to my country, and we can keep this later, 288 00:26:27,986 --> 00:26:29,078 you know, for next time if you come. 289 00:26:29,287 --> 00:26:29,776 lt'll be a nice souvenir, 290 00:26:29,988 --> 00:26:31,353 l'll stick it on my notice-board. 291 00:26:31,923 --> 00:26:33,515 - l'll just get my bag. - Yeah, sure. 292 00:26:36,928 --> 00:26:38,828 Haroon's career has had its ups and downs. 293 00:26:39,030 --> 00:26:41,328 He once delivered pizzas in Pennsylvania. 294 00:26:41,533 --> 00:26:43,728 Then he was summoned home by the family, 295 00:26:43,935 --> 00:26:45,266 to a very different life. 296 00:26:52,410 --> 00:26:54,537 At the beginning, it was so difficult for me, 297 00:26:54,913 --> 00:26:56,608 but now l'm used to it, you know. 298 00:26:56,815 --> 00:27:00,979 Yeah. You can just be travelling along a quiet country road and you run into some group 299 00:27:01,186 --> 00:27:03,950 that you've never heard of who decide they want to kidnap you for a bit. 300 00:27:04,155 --> 00:27:04,814 Of course, yeah. 301 00:27:05,023 --> 00:27:08,186 You know, what l believe, you know, 302 00:27:08,393 --> 00:27:17,131 this time life in Afghanistan is more risky than 15 years ago when the beginning of the revolution. 303 00:27:17,335 --> 00:27:21,328 Yeah. So it your life in danger frequently here? 304 00:27:21,539 --> 00:27:24,269 Yeah, of course it is. Even your life is in danger 305 00:27:24,476 --> 00:27:25,602 when you come to this country. 306 00:27:30,148 --> 00:27:31,979 Alexander, though, met no resistance. 307 00:27:32,317 --> 00:27:34,080 'The people of this part of Baktria,' 308 00:27:34,285 --> 00:27:35,252 the Greeks said, 309 00:27:35,453 --> 00:27:36,385 'are prosperous. 310 00:27:36,588 --> 00:27:39,580 They grow grapes here and have all manner of fruits.' 311 00:27:40,058 --> 00:27:41,525 lt was a little haven. 312 00:28:08,953 --> 00:28:11,751 A warlord's house wasn't quite what l expected, 313 00:28:11,956 --> 00:28:14,356 but soldiers are the same everywhere l guess, 314 00:28:14,559 --> 00:28:16,254 for all the guns and hi-tec. 315 00:28:17,028 --> 00:28:19,690 The Macedonians perhaps were much like the Afghans: 316 00:28:19,998 --> 00:28:21,590 brave, tough, pious. 317 00:28:22,133 --> 00:28:23,760 They lived hard and played hard, 318 00:28:24,135 --> 00:28:25,830 like soldiers throughout history. 319 00:28:27,439 --> 00:28:29,100 The news that night was gloomy. 320 00:28:29,407 --> 00:28:31,272 Rockets were falling on Kabul. 321 00:28:31,743 --> 00:28:33,677 We'd got through just in time. 322 00:28:33,878 --> 00:28:36,244 By this morning they had advanced more than 20 kilometres 323 00:28:36,448 --> 00:28:38,609 in the southern outskirts of the capital. 324 00:28:38,817 --> 00:28:40,910 Reports from Kabul say the fighting has now eased 325 00:28:41,119 --> 00:28:44,680 but the government forces claim they're preparing for a counter-attack. 326 00:28:51,062 --> 00:28:53,428 Next day, as we got ready to head north, 327 00:28:53,631 --> 00:28:55,963 Haroon's tanks were rumbling through the streets. 328 00:29:05,443 --> 00:29:08,071 They were moving their forces back towards the mountains. 329 00:29:08,580 --> 00:29:10,104 Poor Afghanistan. 330 00:29:10,448 --> 00:29:13,110 Now l began to understand Alexander's world. 331 00:29:20,925 --> 00:29:22,790 We hired a battered Russian pick-up 332 00:29:23,027 --> 00:29:25,154 and drove on in Alexander's tracks. 333 00:29:29,801 --> 00:29:31,200 Bessus was on the run, 334 00:29:31,402 --> 00:29:33,597 and Alexander pursued him like a hunter 335 00:29:33,805 --> 00:29:35,397 towards the River Oxus, 336 00:29:35,607 --> 00:29:38,337 which divides Afghanistan from Central Asia. 337 00:30:01,866 --> 00:30:03,800 We're just coming into Tashkurgan. 338 00:30:04,769 --> 00:30:06,703 lt was the first of the ancient Baktrian cities 339 00:30:06,905 --> 00:30:08,805 that Alexander the Great reached 340 00:30:09,007 --> 00:30:11,032 when he came down off the Hindu Kush, 341 00:30:11,676 --> 00:30:14,372 but today Tashkurgan is run by Hisbizlami, 342 00:30:14,579 --> 00:30:17,275 one of the fundamentalist parties here in Afghanistan. 343 00:30:17,582 --> 00:30:18,776 They don't like the West, 344 00:30:18,983 --> 00:30:20,951 they don't like the BBC and they don't like journalists, 345 00:30:21,152 --> 00:30:24,781 so we'll probably give their hospitality a miss tonight. 346 00:30:59,524 --> 00:31:01,321 Yes, well, you won't believe what's just happened. 347 00:31:02,193 --> 00:31:06,186 We actually broke down right in the middle of Tashkurgan. 348 00:31:06,497 --> 00:31:10,092 We just stalled right in front of the border post, 349 00:31:10,501 --> 00:31:15,803 and fortunately there was a sandstorm had blown up and it was just sunset, 350 00:31:16,007 --> 00:31:18,805 so everybody must have been at their Friday prayers, 351 00:31:19,210 --> 00:31:22,771 so we just covered up the camera and all the gear 352 00:31:22,981 --> 00:31:27,350 and sat tight while Tim helped the driver to mend the engine. 353 00:31:42,367 --> 00:31:46,030 lt was summer now and Alexander was racing to the River Oxus. 354 00:31:47,538 --> 00:31:50,837 The road goes through a wasteland covered by moving sand dunes, 355 00:31:51,042 --> 00:31:52,771 just as the Greeks described, 356 00:31:53,211 --> 00:31:55,008 but they weren't carrying enough water, 357 00:31:55,313 --> 00:31:56,507 and they'd lost their way. 358 00:32:04,756 --> 00:32:07,816 lmagine, it was midsummer, blazing heat. 359 00:32:08,793 --> 00:32:13,423 They had to cross this great belt of shifting sand dunes, and they had no water. 360 00:32:13,798 --> 00:32:16,995 They probably had to camp here for two nights, 361 00:32:17,368 --> 00:32:22,567 and then they made the fundamental, unbelievable mistake of 362 00:32:22,774 --> 00:32:24,503 broaching the wine supplies 363 00:32:24,709 --> 00:32:26,301 because they had nothing else to drink. 364 00:32:27,078 --> 00:32:31,310 lt made them feel better for the moment, said one of the Alexander historians, 365 00:32:31,516 --> 00:32:33,984 but the after-effects were terrible. 366 00:32:37,588 --> 00:32:38,953 Maybe they had no choice, 367 00:32:39,190 --> 00:32:41,215 but Alexander's elite ended up hung-over 368 00:32:41,426 --> 00:32:42,620 and dehydrated, 369 00:32:42,827 --> 00:32:44,454 stumbling over sand dunes, 370 00:32:44,662 --> 00:32:46,357 trying to find the Oxus River. 371 00:32:55,740 --> 00:32:58,937 The Greeks reached this place just about the same time of the day, 372 00:32:59,377 --> 00:33:01,004 late afternoon, early evening... 373 00:33:01,346 --> 00:33:04,213 ...and when they saw the river, the troops were so thirsty 374 00:33:04,415 --> 00:33:08,545 that they all piled down to the river bank and just started drinking, 375 00:33:08,820 --> 00:33:14,053 and there were a lot of deaths due to over-consumption of the water of the river, 376 00:33:14,258 --> 00:33:16,351 which isn't particularly good apparently. 377 00:33:18,796 --> 00:33:21,458 ln desperation, Bessus has burned all the river boats, 378 00:33:21,699 --> 00:33:24,930 but Alexander made rafts from tents stuffed with straw, 379 00:33:25,136 --> 00:33:27,502 and ferried his troops across in five days. 380 00:33:28,940 --> 00:33:31,408 Bessus was running out of places to hide. 381 00:33:43,788 --> 00:33:46,256 Ourjourney now took us into Central Asia, 382 00:33:46,591 --> 00:33:50,083 to Uzbekistan and the road to Samarkand. 383 00:33:57,068 --> 00:33:58,501 Despite the intense heat, 384 00:33:58,703 --> 00:34:01,103 Alexander advanced relentlessly. 385 00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:05,308 Then, a very strange thing happened. 386 00:34:06,344 --> 00:34:09,871 Somewhere on this road, Alexander came to a small town. 387 00:34:21,793 --> 00:34:24,921 To his surprise, the people here spoke Greek. 388 00:34:25,797 --> 00:34:27,788 As Alexander and his officers strolled around, 389 00:34:27,999 --> 00:34:30,263 they saw Greek faces in the market-place. 390 00:34:37,041 --> 00:34:39,236 The townspeople had quite a tale to tell. 391 00:34:40,011 --> 00:34:41,535 Their ancestors had been Greeks 392 00:34:41,746 --> 00:34:43,646 from the Aegean coast of Turkey. 393 00:34:44,248 --> 00:34:45,237 Though bilingual now, 394 00:34:45,450 --> 00:34:47,350 they still kept up Greek customs, 395 00:34:53,658 --> 00:34:55,353 but they had a dark secret. 396 00:34:55,760 --> 00:34:59,594 Their ancestors were the priestly family of the temple of Didyma, 397 00:35:00,098 --> 00:35:01,531 the Branchidae. 398 00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:05,499 150 years before, they'd collaborated with the Persians 399 00:35:05,703 --> 00:35:09,139 in the hated war which Alexander had vowed to avenge, 400 00:35:09,974 --> 00:35:12,272 so what would Alexander do now? 401 00:35:24,755 --> 00:35:25,881 Salaam. 402 00:35:26,624 --> 00:35:27,556 Early next morning, 403 00:35:27,758 --> 00:35:30,420 Alexander came through the gate with a small detachment of troops, 404 00:35:30,661 --> 00:35:34,688 apparently to receive the hospitality of the Brachidae. 405 00:35:37,201 --> 00:35:38,099 ln fact, during the night, 406 00:35:38,302 --> 00:35:41,703 the army had been given instructions to surround the town, 407 00:35:42,507 --> 00:35:44,270 and at a pre-arranged signal, 408 00:35:44,475 --> 00:35:48,969 they began to attack with the intention of massacring everybody inside. 409 00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:51,573 The Brachidae had suspected nothing, 410 00:35:52,383 --> 00:35:55,511 but despite their kinship of language, their desperate entreaties, 411 00:35:55,720 --> 00:35:59,451 the fact that they were holding olive branches in their hands, the symbol of peace, 412 00:35:59,790 --> 00:36:03,920 the savagery didn't stop until everybody had been killed. 413 00:36:05,696 --> 00:36:09,097 And afterwards the Greeks levelled the town, 414 00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:13,097 destroyed its walls and even cut down its woods and sacred groves, 415 00:36:13,337 --> 00:36:15,237 so that no trace remained. 416 00:36:19,877 --> 00:36:22,141 The expedition historian, Callisthenes, 417 00:36:22,346 --> 00:36:24,439 did his best tojustify the massacre. 418 00:36:24,916 --> 00:36:26,884 The aim of Alexander's crusade, after all, 419 00:36:27,084 --> 00:36:28,847 had been to punish Persian wrongs. 420 00:36:29,854 --> 00:36:32,186 Arian, though, says nothing. 421 00:36:34,425 --> 00:36:37,394 l imagine he felt that however you gloss it over, 422 00:36:37,828 --> 00:36:40,194 a war crime is still a war crime. 423 00:36:54,278 --> 00:36:55,540 Alexander now received word 424 00:36:55,746 --> 00:36:57,805 that support for Bessus was crumbling 425 00:36:58,015 --> 00:37:00,575 in the face of the Macedonians' lightning advance. 426 00:37:01,385 --> 00:37:04,718 Alexander sent his general Tolomi on ahead, to arrest him. 427 00:37:08,459 --> 00:37:12,828 The last resistance in the Persian Empire he thought had now collapsed. 428 00:37:17,034 --> 00:37:20,231 Tolomi left Alexander behind, pushed on as fast as he could, 429 00:37:20,438 --> 00:37:24,135 up this road towards Samarkand... with light arm cavalry. 430 00:37:24,342 --> 00:37:26,242 He did a ten-day march in four days, 431 00:37:26,444 --> 00:37:28,139 in this kind of heat, summer heat... 432 00:37:28,346 --> 00:37:29,438 ...really hard men. 433 00:37:30,214 --> 00:37:31,977 Bessus's supporters were just terrified. 434 00:37:32,183 --> 00:37:33,650 They turned him over to the Greeks. 435 00:37:33,851 --> 00:37:34,579 When Alexander arrived, 436 00:37:34,785 --> 00:37:37,083 he was standing by the roadside, humiliated, 437 00:37:37,288 --> 00:37:39,518 naked, in a wooden dog-collar. 438 00:37:44,128 --> 00:37:45,857 Bessus met a gruesome end. 439 00:37:46,097 --> 00:37:47,655 His nose and ears were cut off, 440 00:37:47,865 --> 00:37:50,299 and he was sent back to Persia to be impaled, 441 00:37:50,735 --> 00:37:52,862 the Persian punishment for traitors. 442 00:38:03,648 --> 00:38:06,378 Alexander pushed on to the Syr Darya River, 443 00:38:06,784 --> 00:38:09,184 the outermost edge of the Persian Empire. 444 00:38:09,820 --> 00:38:11,310 Here he founded a city 445 00:38:11,622 --> 00:38:14,056 which he called Alexandria the Farthermost. 446 00:38:14,458 --> 00:38:15,755 lt's still here today, 447 00:38:16,193 --> 00:38:17,956 Hojent in Tajikistan. 448 00:38:31,742 --> 00:38:33,437 To understand why he stopped here, 449 00:38:33,644 --> 00:38:35,874 we have to imagine the world as he saw it. 450 00:38:36,080 --> 00:38:39,777 As far as he knew, he was near the northern edge of the world here. 451 00:38:40,351 --> 00:38:43,320 Beyond the Sir Darya lay only a belt of arid plains 452 00:38:43,521 --> 00:38:46,547 as far as the Great Ocean which encircled the earth. 453 00:38:47,158 --> 00:38:49,285 There was no point in going any further. 454 00:38:51,996 --> 00:38:53,395 To mark his northern limit, 455 00:38:53,597 --> 00:38:55,462 Alexander built altars to his favourite god, 456 00:38:55,666 --> 00:38:56,963 Dionysus, 457 00:38:57,168 --> 00:38:58,396 perhaps on the very spot 458 00:38:58,602 --> 00:39:00,900 where now there's a great statue of Lenin... 459 00:39:01,339 --> 00:39:03,398 ...monument to another tide of history 460 00:39:03,607 --> 00:39:05,131 which has come and gone. 461 00:39:14,719 --> 00:39:16,482 lt's a nice place, the Farthermost. 462 00:39:16,787 --> 00:39:19,347 l think the Greek colonists might have felt quite at home here, 463 00:39:19,590 --> 00:39:21,080 figs and olives in the market. 464 00:39:29,166 --> 00:39:31,327 Alexander said he hoped the town would one day 465 00:39:31,535 --> 00:39:33,093 become rich and famous. 466 00:39:33,871 --> 00:39:36,635 Perhaps he remembered the words of his teacher, Aristotle, 467 00:39:36,874 --> 00:39:40,708 that civilisation will only thrive on cities and trade. 468 00:39:46,951 --> 00:39:48,418 Ah, thank you. 469 00:39:52,156 --> 00:39:53,123 l don't understand. 470 00:39:53,524 --> 00:39:54,889 - Money. - Money. 471 00:40:00,364 --> 00:40:02,696 Hojent was one of more than 20 Alexandrias 472 00:40:02,900 --> 00:40:05,391 the king founded between Egypt and lndia. 473 00:40:05,770 --> 00:40:09,536 The empire was linked by a system of post horses and racing camels. 474 00:40:10,007 --> 00:40:11,770 The troops received letters from home, 475 00:40:12,143 --> 00:40:14,304 medical supplies came out here by the ton. 476 00:40:14,512 --> 00:40:18,846 Look at this. Oh, thank you very much indeed, thank you. 477 00:40:19,150 --> 00:40:20,082 Thank you. 478 00:40:24,155 --> 00:40:26,089 Alexander even had his favourite books 479 00:40:26,323 --> 00:40:28,587 and fresh fruit sent out here from Greece. 480 00:40:29,393 --> 00:40:31,691 My parcel came from a friend in Athens. 481 00:40:32,396 --> 00:40:33,761 Great, a Greek newspaper. 482 00:40:39,804 --> 00:40:41,738 Olives, Greek olives. 483 00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:43,570 Aristotle was right, 484 00:40:43,874 --> 00:40:45,842 the fruits of civilisation. 485 00:40:49,013 --> 00:40:50,378 A bottle of nausa. 486 00:40:52,750 --> 00:40:54,581 But the local people were not prepared to buy 487 00:40:54,785 --> 00:40:57,117 into the idea of a Greek world empire. 488 00:41:01,025 --> 00:41:04,222 That summer, the famed horsemen of Baktria were gathered, 489 00:41:04,495 --> 00:41:06,622 the Solphians too came out in revolt. 490 00:41:13,103 --> 00:41:14,661 For 2,000 years or more, 491 00:41:14,872 --> 00:41:17,272 they bred the finest horses in Asia here, 492 00:41:17,475 --> 00:41:18,703 and they fought the kind of war 493 00:41:18,909 --> 00:41:21,036 Alexander had not prepared for. 494 00:41:21,345 --> 00:41:23,210 No battles, just hit and run. 495 00:41:24,348 --> 00:41:25,906 You can imagine what he was up against 496 00:41:26,116 --> 00:41:28,141 when you see them play buzkhashee, 497 00:41:28,719 --> 00:41:30,277 but this, just a game. 498 00:41:47,538 --> 00:41:51,201 'Alexander couldn't beat us because we were such good horsemen,' 499 00:41:51,408 --> 00:41:52,670 the old man said. 500 00:41:52,877 --> 00:41:55,368 'Even an 8-year-old could ride and throw a spear. 501 00:41:56,046 --> 00:41:58,537 As horsemen, we had greatness.' 502 00:42:13,464 --> 00:42:14,931 'Our forefathers used to say, 503 00:42:15,132 --> 00:42:17,259 ''The horse is the wings of the man. 504 00:42:17,668 --> 00:42:19,966 A horse is strong and fierce, 505 00:42:20,204 --> 00:42:21,899 like a fierce spirit.'' ' 506 00:42:33,584 --> 00:42:34,312 ln heavy fighting, 507 00:42:34,518 --> 00:42:37,544 Alexander was seriously wounded in the head and throat 508 00:42:37,788 --> 00:42:39,881 and lost both sight and speech. 509 00:42:40,157 --> 00:42:41,181 Worse was to follow. 510 00:42:41,392 --> 00:42:44,293 A Macedonian column was wiped out near Samarkand, 511 00:42:44,495 --> 00:42:46,986 their first defeat for 30 years. 512 00:42:58,709 --> 00:43:00,677 At his base on the Syr Darya River, 513 00:43:00,945 --> 00:43:04,039 he suddenly found himself crippled and at bay. 514 00:43:13,657 --> 00:43:17,616 Alexander was now at one of the lowest points in his entire career. 515 00:43:18,629 --> 00:43:22,087 Surrounded by enemies, he was suffering from a leg wound, he had malnutrition, 516 00:43:22,299 --> 00:43:26,998 dysentery coming on, his throat wound had not healed, so he could hardly speak. 517 00:43:27,204 --> 00:43:29,672 His voice was so quavering that people even close to him 518 00:43:29,873 --> 00:43:31,033 couldn't hear him. 519 00:43:31,241 --> 00:43:34,074 He couldn't stand in the ranks, he couldn't ride a hose, 520 00:43:34,278 --> 00:43:36,940 he couldn't give his army encouragement and instructions, 521 00:43:37,147 --> 00:43:40,378 the very thing on which his generalship depended. 522 00:43:43,787 --> 00:43:46,449 There's a vivid image of Alexander at this moment, 523 00:43:46,890 --> 00:43:48,653 opening his tent flap at night 524 00:43:48,926 --> 00:43:52,953 to gaze across the river at the twinkling fires of the nomad armies. 525 00:43:57,635 --> 00:44:00,263 Being Alexander, though, he had to act. 526 00:44:00,738 --> 00:44:02,467 He forced his way across the river 527 00:44:02,706 --> 00:44:04,298 and won a stunning victory, 528 00:44:04,508 --> 00:44:06,442 even though his dysentery was now so bad, 529 00:44:06,644 --> 00:44:08,009 he had to be carried back. 530 00:44:10,447 --> 00:44:12,540 Now began his hardest war. 531 00:44:16,487 --> 00:44:18,682 That winter, he regrouped in Balkh. 532 00:44:18,922 --> 00:44:20,753 The next spring, massively reinforced, 533 00:44:20,958 --> 00:44:23,449 he took fire and sword across Central Asia. 534 00:44:23,661 --> 00:44:26,824 Five mobile army groups, 50,000 men, 535 00:44:27,031 --> 00:44:29,499 spread up the river valleys of Tajikistan 536 00:44:29,700 --> 00:44:33,397 in a search-and-destroy operation almost as far as China. 537 00:44:33,871 --> 00:44:37,238 ln the autumn, they reunited at Samarkand. 538 00:44:48,752 --> 00:44:52,984 Samarkand, most famous and glamorous city on the Silk Route. 539 00:44:55,926 --> 00:44:57,223 ln Alexander's day, 540 00:44:57,428 --> 00:44:59,419 it was the chief town of Sovdia, 541 00:44:59,663 --> 00:45:01,130 today's Uzbekistan. 542 00:45:06,270 --> 00:45:07,532 Here, that September, 543 00:45:07,738 --> 00:45:09,603 took place one of the most fateful incidents 544 00:45:09,807 --> 00:45:11,104 of Alexander's life. 545 00:45:17,881 --> 00:45:21,009 Just outside the city gate lies the mound of the ancient tongue, 546 00:45:21,485 --> 00:45:23,544 and remains of a Sovdian palace. 547 00:45:28,092 --> 00:45:30,526 One night, Alexander held a banquet here. 548 00:45:30,994 --> 00:45:33,189 Among the guests was a veteran cavalry officer 549 00:45:33,397 --> 00:45:34,728 called Cleitus. 550 00:45:35,365 --> 00:45:37,060 One of Alexander's father's generation, 551 00:45:37,267 --> 00:45:40,464 Cleitus had saved Alexander's life back in the early days. 552 00:45:41,171 --> 00:45:44,163 With everyone drunk, the evening turned nasty. 553 00:45:45,409 --> 00:45:48,537 Alexander was harping on about his relationship with his father, 554 00:45:48,812 --> 00:45:51,246 and clearly felt very embittered and competitive, 555 00:45:51,448 --> 00:45:52,847 it was real Freudian stuff. 556 00:45:53,050 --> 00:45:56,542 'My father never gave me the credit for my part in his victories,' he said, 557 00:45:56,787 --> 00:45:58,687 'bore me ill-will and jealousy.' 558 00:45:58,989 --> 00:46:02,152 Cleitus, who was one of the old guards, stood up, and he said, 559 00:46:02,359 --> 00:46:04,327 'Everything you have achieved 560 00:46:04,561 --> 00:46:06,392 was based on what your father did. 561 00:46:06,597 --> 00:46:10,226 ln fact your father's achievements are far greater than yours, 562 00:46:10,534 --> 00:46:13,435 and he won them fighting men, not women.' 563 00:46:13,904 --> 00:46:18,238 At this point, Alexander who'd been relatively calm 564 00:46:18,442 --> 00:46:21,138 and unruffled flew into a rage. 565 00:46:21,345 --> 00:46:22,642 He threw fruit at Cleitus, 566 00:46:22,846 --> 00:46:24,541 tried to grab a spear in order to hit him, 567 00:46:24,748 --> 00:46:29,651 and kept calling out in Macedonian to give the alarm for the royal bodyguards to come in. 568 00:46:30,154 --> 00:46:33,021 Alexander's friends meanwhile had grabbed hold of Cleitus 569 00:46:33,223 --> 00:46:37,319 and they pulled him out of the door and actually got him across the moat over there, 570 00:46:37,561 --> 00:46:40,587 but just when everybody thought everything was over, 571 00:46:40,864 --> 00:46:42,593 in comes Cleitus again, 572 00:46:42,833 --> 00:46:44,130 'Here l am, Alexander.' 573 00:46:44,334 --> 00:46:47,167 Alexander grabs a long spear from one of the guards at the door 574 00:46:47,371 --> 00:46:50,067 and runs him through. There's blood everywhere, 575 00:46:50,274 --> 00:46:52,640 and Alexander collapses on to the body 576 00:46:52,843 --> 00:46:56,802 in a drink-sodden heap in floods of tears. 577 00:47:04,054 --> 00:47:06,215 Some said Cleitus got what was coming to him, 578 00:47:07,124 --> 00:47:09,615 and the king now suspended freedom of speech, 579 00:47:10,527 --> 00:47:12,119 but at the tomb of Tamberlaine, 580 00:47:12,462 --> 00:47:14,123 another tyrant or hero, 581 00:47:14,331 --> 00:47:15,821 depending on your point of view, 582 00:47:16,099 --> 00:47:18,363 the words of eye-witness came to mind 583 00:47:18,869 --> 00:47:22,805 who spoke of the fear which people round Alexander now felt. 584 00:47:23,907 --> 00:47:27,809 He was a very violent man, with no regard for human life, 585 00:47:28,312 --> 00:47:30,746 who was said to be melancholy mad. 586 00:47:38,021 --> 00:47:41,923 Meanwhile Alexander had still not crushed the Central Asian revolt. 587 00:47:42,292 --> 00:47:44,658 The ringleaders were holding out in the rugged mountains 588 00:47:44,862 --> 00:47:46,591 on the Tajik-Uzbek border. 589 00:47:47,731 --> 00:47:48,720 With their wives and children, 590 00:47:48,932 --> 00:47:53,528 they'd taken refuge on an inaccessible peak known as the Sogdian Rock, 591 00:47:54,071 --> 00:47:55,333 but where was the rock? 592 00:47:55,639 --> 00:47:56,765 lt's never been found. 593 00:48:07,251 --> 00:48:09,617 We were sleeping at a village high in the mountains. 594 00:48:09,820 --> 00:48:11,617 Hearing of our search for the rock, 595 00:48:11,822 --> 00:48:12,481 over breakfast 596 00:48:12,689 --> 00:48:16,455 the local men showed us an old manuscript of the Alexander Legend. 597 00:48:26,937 --> 00:48:28,734 There were old traditions, they said, 598 00:48:28,939 --> 00:48:30,873 that Alexander had come this way, 599 00:48:31,375 --> 00:48:35,243 and that the lost citadel of Sogdian lay in the mountains close by. 600 00:48:36,413 --> 00:48:38,506 Stories like this are ten a penny in these parts, 601 00:48:38,715 --> 00:48:40,808 where you'll find Alexander's Legend everywhere. 602 00:48:41,218 --> 00:48:43,778 But my ears pricked up when they began to tell us 603 00:48:43,987 --> 00:48:47,047 about a mountain a day's walk from their village. 604 00:48:56,400 --> 00:48:58,459 This, their forefathers had told them, 605 00:48:58,669 --> 00:49:00,034 was the Sogdian Rock. 606 00:49:00,704 --> 00:49:02,296 They offered to take us there. 607 00:49:03,240 --> 00:49:04,502 lt seemed worth a try. 608 00:49:24,161 --> 00:49:26,891 The mountain lies right in the heart of ancient Sogdia. 609 00:49:27,097 --> 00:49:29,292 lt's called Hazrati Sultan. 610 00:49:30,767 --> 00:49:32,997 lt's 14,000 ft. high, 611 00:49:34,438 --> 00:49:37,271 and the last few thousand feet form a sheer cliff. 612 00:49:37,908 --> 00:49:40,035 The Sogdians thought they were safe. 613 00:49:48,352 --> 00:49:52,618 Alexander was about to give up attempting to see the Sogdian Rock, 614 00:49:53,256 --> 00:49:56,350 but one of the ambassadors who came down from the Sogdians 615 00:49:56,560 --> 00:49:58,084 irritated him so much, 616 00:49:58,295 --> 00:50:01,856 Arian says, that he had to go on and seize it in the pursuit of glory. 617 00:50:02,132 --> 00:50:03,463 The ambassador simply said, 618 00:50:03,700 --> 00:50:06,134 in response to Alexander's demand for them to surrender, 619 00:50:06,336 --> 00:50:09,169 'Just find soldiers who can fly. 620 00:50:09,439 --> 00:50:11,873 Nobody else is going to be of any concern to us.' 621 00:50:15,912 --> 00:50:19,245 Alexander asked for volunteers with experience in mountain-climbing. 622 00:50:19,449 --> 00:50:21,178 300 men came forward, 623 00:50:21,385 --> 00:50:23,649 herdsmen from the Macedonian uplands. 624 00:50:24,121 --> 00:50:27,352 They took ropes, made pitons from iron tent pegs. 625 00:50:28,625 --> 00:50:29,592 The climb was difficult enough 626 00:50:29,793 --> 00:50:31,226 for our local guides, 627 00:50:31,962 --> 00:50:33,987 but Alexander's men did it at night, 628 00:50:34,231 --> 00:50:36,290 on the back face where they wouldn't be seen. 629 00:50:42,072 --> 00:50:42,970 On the other side, 630 00:50:43,173 --> 00:50:46,939 a narrow path led to a ravine which was massively defended. 631 00:50:55,152 --> 00:50:58,053 32 of Alexander's climbers died on the rock. 632 00:51:21,244 --> 00:51:22,211 Dawn the next day, 633 00:51:22,446 --> 00:51:28,078 Alexander's 300 mountaineers appeared over the top of the ridge up there, 634 00:51:28,285 --> 00:51:29,411 waving flags. 635 00:51:29,686 --> 00:51:33,850 The Barbarians, said Arian, were absolutely staggered. 636 00:51:34,057 --> 00:51:36,287 They had simply not thought it was possible. 637 00:51:36,626 --> 00:51:39,356 Alexander's herald rushed up to their front line 638 00:51:39,629 --> 00:51:40,891 and shouted across to them, 639 00:51:41,231 --> 00:51:42,789 'You better surrender now,' he said. 640 00:51:43,033 --> 00:51:46,059 'You see, l found the soldiers who could fly.' 641 00:51:51,441 --> 00:51:53,068 The rebels gave up there and then. 642 00:51:53,276 --> 00:51:55,039 The story was remembered ever after 643 00:51:55,245 --> 00:51:58,646 as proof of Alexander's almost superhuman powers. 644 00:52:17,734 --> 00:52:20,532 But now comes the most amazing twist in the tail, 645 00:52:20,804 --> 00:52:22,931 for a peace was finally brokered, 646 00:52:23,140 --> 00:52:25,370 not through war but through love. 647 00:52:28,145 --> 00:52:30,443 At least that was how the Greeks told it. 648 00:52:36,786 --> 00:52:38,651 One night, a splendid banquet was held 649 00:52:38,855 --> 00:52:40,686 by one of the Sogdian barons, 650 00:52:40,924 --> 00:52:43,722 Alexander's erstwhile enemy, Oxiates. 651 00:52:44,494 --> 00:52:48,260 lt was a feast of typical barbarian splendour, the Greeks said, 652 00:52:48,465 --> 00:52:51,957 l imagine not unlike the great Uzbek wedding feasts you see today. 653 00:53:03,647 --> 00:53:06,081 At the feast was the baron's beautiful daughter, 654 00:53:06,283 --> 00:53:08,342 Roxane, little star. 655 00:53:09,052 --> 00:53:10,815 She'd been captured on the Sogdian Rock. 656 00:53:11,154 --> 00:53:13,748 Now, with her girl-friends, she danced before the king. 657 00:53:14,357 --> 00:53:16,825 When Alexander set eyes on her, Arian said, 658 00:53:17,027 --> 00:53:18,756 it was love at first sight. 659 00:53:19,763 --> 00:53:22,561 With the same impulsiveness which had killed Cleitus, 660 00:53:22,766 --> 00:53:25,234 Alexander proposed to Roxane. 661 00:53:25,835 --> 00:53:27,359 With his sword, he cut the bread 662 00:53:27,571 --> 00:53:30,734 as they still do to mark an engagement in Uzbeka. 663 00:53:31,341 --> 00:53:32,365 He was 29, 664 00:53:32,642 --> 00:53:35,076 she at a guess in her mid-teens. 665 00:53:44,921 --> 00:53:47,412 His friends were staggered, to put it mildly. 666 00:53:47,624 --> 00:53:49,649 He'd had a relationship with a woman before, 667 00:53:49,859 --> 00:53:51,952 but his real intimacies, emotional and physical, 668 00:53:52,162 --> 00:53:53,220 had been with men, 669 00:53:53,430 --> 00:53:54,089 and to cap it all, 670 00:53:54,297 --> 00:53:55,355 he ordered some of his generals 671 00:53:55,565 --> 00:53:57,465 to marry the local women, too. 672 00:53:58,768 --> 00:53:59,860 Was it really love, 673 00:54:00,370 --> 00:54:02,338 orjust a clever political ploy? 674 00:54:02,906 --> 00:54:04,203 Who can say? 675 00:54:17,454 --> 00:54:19,081 Alexander's marriage with Roxane 676 00:54:19,289 --> 00:54:21,553 sealed the conquest of Central Asia. 677 00:54:25,795 --> 00:54:27,387 He now returned with his new bride 678 00:54:27,597 --> 00:54:29,224 to Balkh in Northern Afghanistan, 679 00:54:29,432 --> 00:54:31,161 to prepare for the invasion of lndia. 680 00:54:31,601 --> 00:54:34,126 We flew there in a warlord's helicopter. 681 00:54:40,176 --> 00:54:43,577 Alexander's expedition would open up the heart of Asia 682 00:54:43,780 --> 00:54:45,714 and for a thousand years after the Greeks, 683 00:54:45,915 --> 00:54:48,179 Balkh would be the greatest crossroads 684 00:54:48,385 --> 00:54:49,977 on the Silk Route to China. 685 00:54:50,954 --> 00:54:52,387 You can see its ruins below us, 686 00:54:52,589 --> 00:54:54,580 a wall stretching for 7 miles 687 00:54:54,824 --> 00:54:57,384 with the remains of 100 Buddhist monasteries, 688 00:54:57,594 --> 00:54:59,152 Zoroastrian fire temples, 689 00:54:59,362 --> 00:55:01,523 and later Christian and Jewish settlements, 690 00:55:01,765 --> 00:55:04,097 and the huge mosques of the Muslim period. 691 00:55:04,534 --> 00:55:07,401 When the Arabs came here in the 7th century, 692 00:55:07,604 --> 00:55:10,971 they called it simply 'the mother of cities'. 693 00:55:37,767 --> 00:55:41,601 Fate, though, still had another card to play in this story. 694 00:55:49,646 --> 00:55:50,578 Here in Balkh, 695 00:55:50,780 --> 00:55:53,977 Alexander announced that he wished to be worshipped as a god, 696 00:55:54,184 --> 00:55:55,378 Persian style. 697 00:55:59,022 --> 00:56:02,185 You can imagine how that went down among the Macedonian veterans. 698 00:56:04,127 --> 00:56:08,223 And now for the first time there was a serious plot against Alexander's life. 699 00:56:08,598 --> 00:56:11,396 A group of royal pages planned to assassinate him. 700 00:56:12,001 --> 00:56:14,196 They were betrayed and tortured to death. 701 00:56:18,675 --> 00:56:21,269 But the dissension over Alexander's divinity climaxed 702 00:56:21,478 --> 00:56:26,040 in a sensational falling-out with the man who'd helped create Alexander's image, 703 00:56:26,449 --> 00:56:30,010 Aristotle's nephew, the historian Callisthenes. 704 00:56:37,560 --> 00:56:39,084 The final rift took place here 705 00:56:39,295 --> 00:56:42,958 in the citadel of Balkh, after a bitter exchange. 706 00:56:43,199 --> 00:56:45,292 Callisthenes left the royal presence 707 00:56:45,502 --> 00:56:49,097 and turned to reiterate two or three times 708 00:56:49,305 --> 00:56:51,739 a single line from Alexander's favourite book, 709 00:56:51,941 --> 00:56:52,669 The lliad. 710 00:56:52,876 --> 00:56:55,970 The line is this: A better man than you 711 00:56:56,179 --> 00:57:01,276 by far was Petropolis, but still death did not spare him. 712 00:57:01,551 --> 00:57:05,419 ln other words, you're not a god, Alexander. 713 00:57:05,789 --> 00:57:08,758 The king's response was predictably savage. 714 00:57:08,992 --> 00:57:11,392 Using the pages' plot as a pretext, 715 00:57:11,594 --> 00:57:13,357 he arrested Callisthenes 716 00:57:13,563 --> 00:57:16,464 and had him tortured and crucified. 717 00:57:20,370 --> 00:57:24,807 Of all Alexander's deeds, it was said, this left the bitterest taste, 718 00:57:25,041 --> 00:57:26,167 for everyone agreed 719 00:57:26,376 --> 00:57:27,502 Callisthenes was innocent, 720 00:57:27,710 --> 00:57:29,905 yet he was brutally killed without trial. 721 00:57:30,647 --> 00:57:34,447 lt was the act of a tyrant, and as Aristotle said, 722 00:57:35,118 --> 00:57:37,313 'No-one freely endures such rule.' 723 00:57:39,522 --> 00:57:42,889 Alexander had already achieved more perhaps than he could have dreamed, 724 00:57:43,126 --> 00:57:46,493 but now the question was no long his ability to do things... 725 00:57:47,096 --> 00:57:49,428 ...but whether his men would still follow him 726 00:57:49,632 --> 00:57:51,725 on into the unknown.