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1994 Peter Sommer walked 2,000 miles across Turkey retracing the
route of Alexander the Great, and in the process fell in love
with the country, its ancient civilizations, and the Turkish people.
For this epic journey he received The Explorers Club of America
Young Expeditioners' award.
You too can follow in Alexander's footsteps on our Alexander
the Great tour, personally led by Peter.
In the footsteps of Alexander the Great: travel article.
It all stemmed from a photograph in an old dusty book. The scene
was of towering mountains enveloping a verdant river valley, through
which Alexander the Great apparently passed 2,300 years ago. Like
the photographer, the explorer Sir Aurel Stein, I too wished to
wander in the depths of Asia in search of clues to the ancient
past.
For more than two thousand years Alexander the Great has excited
the imagination of people around the globe. I became fascinated
by Alexander some 18 years ago when a history teacher at school
unravelled a map of the classical world and traced the outline
of his journey with his finger. Who could not be intrigued by
a man who inspired his soldiers to march for 12 years, beyond
the known ends of the earth. They tramped some 22,000 miles; from
Greece all the way to India and back to Babylon. By the time the
Macedonian king died at the age of thirty two in 323 BC much of
the known world lay beneath his feet.
Map
of Turkey showing the route walked in Alexander the Great's
footsteps
Having studied his campaign in libraries I wanted to get out on
the ground and see how the landscape with its mountains, rivers,
and deserts shaped his strategies and determined his route. Geography
so often governs history, and I wanted to see it up close for myself.
I decided to organise an expedition focusing on Turkey, ancient
Asia Minor, retracing his footsteps from the enigmatic city of Troy
to the site of the Battle of Issus.
What better way than to walk the 2,000 miles, travelling at the
marching speed of his army and experience something of the physical
rigours he faced. I wanted to behold the monumental ruins of cities
he visited or attacked, and to search for ancient roads, upon which
his soldiers trekked. It took Alexander and his 40,000 soldiers
eighteen months to reach Issus. I would refrain from fighting battles,
besieging towns, and the occasional spot of pillaging, and so hoped
to complete the route in some twenty weeks, covering about fifteen
miles a day.
Turkey is a veritable treasure trove for those enthralled by Alexander.
First stop should be Istanbul’s magnificent archaeological
museum. There, pride of place, stands the Alexander sarcophagus.
This was not Alexander’s personal coffin, the whereabouts
of which has been hotly debated. Instead this tomb was excavated
at Sidon and probably belonged to Abdalonymus, a mere gardener who
was appointed as the local ruler by Alexander. In death as in life
he wanted to show his continuing respect for his overlord, and so
had Alexander depicted on his tomb.
To marvel properly at one of the finest pieces of craftmanship from
the ancient world you really do have to drop to your knees. Carved
in lustrous white marble, the sides are adorned with reliefs of
battles and hunts charged with energy and grace. If one looks carefully,
it’s possible to see the remnants of painted colours that
highlighted the figures all the more, and the tiny holes where once
tiny spears and swords were carefully positioned.
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The
Alexander sarcophagus, Istanbul archaeological museum, Turkey
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One side shows Alexander
at the hunt, a popular pastime amongst the Macedonian nobility and
one of Alexander’s favourite pleasures. On another is Alexander
the Great at war, astride his trusty steed Bucephalas, rearing up
on muscular legs above a fallen Persian horseman. The king himself,
his head encased in a lion helmet, symbol of Hercules, stretches
his right arm back over his shoulder with spear at the ready.
It was in the spring of 334BC that Alexander embarked on his epic
expedition to overthrow the Persian empire. As he sailed from the
Gallipoli peninsula across the Hellespont, the modern Dardanelles,
he stopped mid way to sacrifice a bull and pour libations from a
golden cup to placate Poseidon and the ocean. Then, dressed in full
armour at the prow of the royal trireme, always a king with a showman’s
instincts, he hurled his spear into the soil claiming the continent
as his, won by right of conquest. Needless to say he was the first
to jump from his ship and set foot on the sands of Asia.
When I visited Troy the start-point of my walk, I felt rather like
many travellers first exploring the site, confused and a little
disappointed. There are no great colonnaded streets decked with
marbles and mosaics to inspire awe, instead you have to let your
imagination fly and let ancient myths consume your thoughts.
This is what Alexander did almost immediately after arriving in
Asia Minor. He stripped naked, anointed himself with oil, and ran
to place a garland on the tomb of Achilles. It was a symbolic gesture,
the new great warrior paying homage to his own personal hero, who
had fought a thousand years before Alexander (if there is any truth
in Homer’s story of the Trojan war). Next, having climbed
up to the temple of Athena, he donated his own suit of armour and
was given in return the finest relics from heroic times, including
Achilles’ celebrated five layer shield, which was to save
Alexander’s life during a siege in India.
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Peter
Sommer at the outset of his walk
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My walk began in March
and as I walked inland I shivered my way through hills decked in
snow. Thankfully welcoming villagers were on hand calling me into
their tea houses, plying me with hot cocoa, and presenting me with
a cornucopia of tasty treats. Heading south having already worn
out one pair of boots, I reached Ephesus. While Troy requires a
leap of faith, this city needs no effort at all to bring its ruins
to life. Although almost all of what can be seen today is Roman,
dating to the time when the city was the capital of the province
of Asia, it was an important city hundreds of years before when
Alexander the Great marched through.
In Alexander’s wake I visited the Temple of Artemis, one of
the seven ancient wonders of the world. Coincidentally it was burned
down by a madman the night that Alexander was born. Nowadays the
temple stands forlorn and melancholy. Just one column rises full
above the swampy ground. It’s hard at first to see in the
sparse ruins one of the greatest buildings ever built, but the sheer
length of it offers the first easy clue. Since so many buildings
in antiquity were frequently damaged then rebuilt, or in a state
of construction for centuries, I find it quite refreshing to see
a celebrated temple left plain and unreconstructed.
Alexander offered to defray all the costs that had been incurred
in the rebuilding of the temple on the proviso that they would dedicate
it in his name, but the citizens of Ephesus politely declined his
attempt at PR and propaganda ‘because it did not befit one
god to do honour to another’. Not far south, however, he found
a far more willing recipient for his largesse. The town of Priene,
always a poor cousin to Ephesus, was only too glad to take his cash
and allow him to dedicate their new temple to Athena.
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The
temple of Athena, at Priene, on the west coast of Turkey
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Today Priene stands like
a veritable time capsule to the Hellenistic period following the
death of Alexander the Great. Designed on a rigid Hippodamian grid
square pattern, named after the architect from nearby Miletus, the
stepped streets march up the steep hillside almost oblivious of
the geography, to Athena’s temple.
Standing here, looking out on a breathtaking panorama high above
the vast alluvial plain of the Maeander River, the passage of time
is instantly obvious. 2,300 years ago, all the land below was sea.
Islands which were once witness to great naval battles are now mere
bumps in a seemingly endless flat. Yet strolling around Priene,
almost always empty of tourists, it’s almost possible to hear
the marching feet of Macedonian soldiers amongst the sound of cicadas.
Heading further south, Alexander reached Halicarnassus, the glistening
capital of the Hecatomnid dynasty, built on a lavish scale by Mausolus,
whose tomb, the ‘Mausoleum’, was ranked as one of the
seven wonders of the ancient world. It was also a key naval base
occupied by the Persians, who manned the city’s 6.5kms of
fortifications. These giant walls, bristling with towers, were a
technological masterpiece and only a few decades old. They still
snake their way over the hillsides above Bodrum. One can get a real
sense of their majesty at the Myndos gate on the west, which stands
well preserved and resolute not far from a newly built supermarket.
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Alexander
depicted as Helios
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As big and strong as they
were, Halicarnassus’ walls were built to defend in a bygone
age. For Alexander was equipped with a new type of weapon, the torsion
catapult. Designed by engineers at the court of Philip, his father,
it was powered by animal sinews that could unleash far more power
than anything previously seen. Until then siege warfare had generally
been a case of surrounding a town and starving it out. Now a new
arms race had begun.
With these catapults Alexander could actually knock down walls,
and literally smash any cities that stood in his way. One can almost
imagine the look on the faces of the Persian generals, encamped
in Mausolus’ old palace probably beneath the city’s
Crusadar castle, as Alexander’s troops wheeled up siege towers
several stories high, and let rip the first volley of stone boulders.
Three months into my expedition, I walked through the depths of
central Anatolia, a never-ending patchwork of wheat fields, to the
city of Gordium. Situated on the Persian Royal Road just west of
Ankara, this was the capital of Phrygia, a kingdom founded by Gordius
in the 8th century BC. It was expanded by his celebrated son, Midas,
whose touch according to legend turned everything to gold.
It was here that one of the most celebrated moments in Alexander’s
career occurred. Alexander was attracted by the story surrounding
a ceremonial chariot that marked Gordius’ grave. The wagon’s
yoke was attached by a knot no man had ever been able to undo. Not
unlike the story of Arthur and the sword in the stone, people believed
that whoever undid the knot would become Lord of all Asia. Surrounded
by a crowd of onlookers Alexander struggled to loose the knot. Growing
frustrated he drew his sword and slashed through it. Apparently
Zeus himself approved of Alexander’s actions, for “there
were thunderclaps and flashes of lightning that very night”.
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The
extraordinary lunar landscape of Cappadocia in eastern Turkey
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In the baking heat of
August, I headed southeast via Cappadocia, across the Taurus mountains,
and on past Tarsus. Where the coast of Turkey turns south to the
east of Adana, a great mound lies, excavated in recent times. This
earthen ‘huyuk’, like many scattered around this part
of the world, marks an ancient settlement, in this case, the town
of Issus. It was here that Alexander left his sick and injured soldiers
before moving south hot on the trail of the Persian Great King,
Darius. Unbeknownst to Alexander, however, Darius’s army was
actually wheeling around behind him. When Darius reached Issus,
he cut off the hands of the Macedonian sick he found there.
Today the area is far removed from its ancient past, an industrial
zone crammed with smoking factories. But it was here that one of
the most significant battles in history was fought. On the banks
of a small river, Alexander assembled his force. He had chosen the
site carefully, a narrow plain hemmed between mountains and sea,
to prevent the Persians from using their vastly greater numbers.
I remember walking around the area, armed with the ancient writers
who described the battle, trying to make sense of the landscape.
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The
Alexander mosaic, discovered at Pompeii
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As was usual, Alexander
himself led the charge at the head of his finest cavalry, a true
leader who showed his men the way. He aimed right at the heart of
the opposing army to Darius himself. The scene is immortalised in
a mosaic found at Pompeii. Alexander gallops steely eyed straight
for the Persian Great King, who turns tail and flees as fast as
he can. One of the ancient authors, Diodorus Siculus, wrote:
"More than achieving victory over the Persians, Alexander
wished to be the personal instrument of victory"
It is a telling insight into the nature and personality of this
legendary figure.
My walk finished just a few miles south of the site of the battle
at the city of Iskenderun, named after a city Alexander founded
here in commemoration of the battle. Four and a half months and
2,000 miles after setting off on foot from Troy, I could not believe
my journey had finished.
The myriad ancient cities I had seen were embedded in my memory,
but what remains foremost in my mind is the sincere friendship of
the Turkish people, extended constantly to a weary traveller far
from home. Every single day I was welcomed into their homes and
showered with kindness and hospitality. Though just a brief affair,
it was passionate in the extreme, and left me madly in love with
the land that is Turkey. |
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