Alexander the Great: Across the Known World

Crossing the Hellespont into Asia in 334 BC, Alexander went first to Troy. According to Arrian he sacrificed to Athena, laid a garland on the tomb of Achilles — while his friend Hephaestion did the same for Patroclus — and called Achilles fortunate to have had Homer to proclaim his fame. The mound of Hisarlik, excavated by Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann from 1871, is now identified as Troy and is a World Heritage Site.

Visitor guidance: The archaeological site of Troy and its museum are near Tevfikiye, south of Çanakkale.

In May 334 BC the satraps of Persian Asia Minor waited for him on the far bank of the Granicus, on the road from Abydos to Dascylium. Alexander led the cavalry charge across the river himself and was nearly killed in the mêlée — Arrian says Cleitus the Black cut off the arm of a Persian about to strike him. The victory opened western Asia Minor to him. The river is today's Biga Çayı in north-west Turkey; exactly where along it the battle was fought is still debated.

Location precision: The battlefield along the river isn't fixed; the pin marks the Biga Çayı.

On 5 November 333 BC Alexander met Darius III himself near Issus, on a narrow plain only about 2.6 km wide between the gulf and the mountains, where the Persian king could not use his greater numbers. Darius fled the field, leaving his chariot, his bow — and his mother, wife and daughters, whom Alexander treated with respect. The armies fought across a small river, the Pinarus, but which modern stream it was has been argued over for decades.

Location precision: The Pinarus is not securely identified; the pin marks one proposed river south of ancient Issus.

Tyre, the great Phoenician port, stood on an island about half a mile offshore and refused to let him in. Alexander besieged it for seven months in 332 BC, building a causeway out across the shallows to bring his siege towers to the walls, while his newly gathered fleet blockaded the harbours. When the city fell, it was punished savagely. Silt built up on either side of the causeway over the centuries, and the old island is still joined to the mainland: the modern city covers most of it.

Egypt surrendered without a fight. Early in 331 BC, on the coast west of the Nile delta near a fishing village called Rhakotis, Alexander marked out a new city, Alexandria. He never saw it built, but it became one of the largest cities of the ancient world, home of the Library and the Pharos lighthouse, and for almost a thousand years the capital of Egypt. From here he also made his famous journey across the desert to the oracle of Ammon at Siwa.

In 331 BC Darius tried once more, choosing open ground at Gaugamela, a village north of Arbela (modern Erbil), where his huge army and scythed chariots would have room. Alexander pulled the Persian line apart by drifting to the right, then drove a wedge of cavalry through the gap straight at Darius, who fled again. It was the decisive battle of the war: Babylon and Susa opened their gates soon afterwards. Several sites in northern Iraq have been proposed for the battlefield, among them Tel Gomel.

Location precision: The battlefield's exact position is not known; the pin marks one of the proposed sites near Tel Gomel.

In 330 BC Alexander took Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Persian kings, built on a great stone platform from 515 BC onwards. Soon afterwards its palaces were destroyed by fire. Ancient writers disagree about why: Arrian presents it as deliberate revenge for the Persian burning of Athens in 480 BC, while others tell of a drunken feast that got out of hand. The ruins, with their staircases carved with processions of tribute-bearers, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In May 326 BC, in the Punjab, King Porus held the far bank of the monsoon-swollen Hydaspes (the Jhelum) with war elephants. Alexander crossed upstream by night in a storm and caught him in the flank — one of his most admired manoeuvres — then made the defeated Porus his satrap. His horse Bucephalus died soon after. A little further east, at the Hyphasis (the Beas), his exhausted army, eight years on the march, refused to go any further, and Alexander turned back.

Location precision: The crossing point on the Jhelum is disputed; the pin marks the town of Jhelum on the river.

After a disastrous march back through the Gedrosian desert, Alexander returned to Babylon in 323 BC, planning an expedition to Arabia. Instead he fell ill with a fever after a banquet and, according to a Babylonian astronomical diary, died in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II on the evening of 10 or 11 June 323 BC, aged 32. The cause is still argued over, from malaria to poison. His generals divided his empire among themselves within a few years.

Location precision: The palace site within the ruins isn't pinned; the pin marks ancient Babylon.