Alexander and the desert
Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 1:24 pm
Hello,
one film that I had nevergot round to watching was the English Patient- at the end of the film the main character has to walk several days through the desert, which got me thinking about the desert and Alexander- namely Siwa and the Makran
The man in the film has to walk 3 days in the desertand doesn't look too good after his journey. From what I can gather- we can say that Alexander's experiences in the desert were in the Lybian desert and then later in the Makran desert(interesting etymology- from Persian- Maki- fish- khoran- eaters- ie. fisheaters.
As far as traversing the Lybian desert to get to Siwa, perhaps we can assume that Alexander had read Herodotus and knew about the sandstorm that had caused the death of 50000 men under the rule of Cambises. Hardly an inspiring tale to make you want to go off into an unchartered desert. Of course, fantastic tales abound regarding Alexander's visit to the desert, the crows showing the way, the sudden heavy rain in the desert-- borrwing facts from Michael Wood's book- read it was 250 kilometres to Siwa along a track road that shouldn't have caused too much trouble. After four days they lost their way- and quickly ran out of water.
Similarly perhaps due to Alexander's desire to regain notoriety after the mutiny he chose to go through the makran desert- a huge human disaster ensued- and an incursion of some two months.
Not sure about exactly how many kilometres we are talking about with the Makran journey but it must have easily surpassed the trip to Siwah- supposedly an 4 day trip.
All in all, you get the impression that the desert was one area Alexander didn't particularly have too much good luck.
Best regards,
Dean
one film that I had nevergot round to watching was the English Patient- at the end of the film the main character has to walk several days through the desert, which got me thinking about the desert and Alexander- namely Siwa and the Makran
The man in the film has to walk 3 days in the desertand doesn't look too good after his journey. From what I can gather- we can say that Alexander's experiences in the desert were in the Lybian desert and then later in the Makran desert(interesting etymology- from Persian- Maki- fish- khoran- eaters- ie. fisheaters.
As far as traversing the Lybian desert to get to Siwa, perhaps we can assume that Alexander had read Herodotus and knew about the sandstorm that had caused the death of 50000 men under the rule of Cambises. Hardly an inspiring tale to make you want to go off into an unchartered desert. Of course, fantastic tales abound regarding Alexander's visit to the desert, the crows showing the way, the sudden heavy rain in the desert-- borrwing facts from Michael Wood's book- read it was 250 kilometres to Siwa along a track road that shouldn't have caused too much trouble. After four days they lost their way- and quickly ran out of water.
Similarly perhaps due to Alexander's desire to regain notoriety after the mutiny he chose to go through the makran desert- a huge human disaster ensued- and an incursion of some two months.
Not sure about exactly how many kilometres we are talking about with the Makran journey but it must have easily surpassed the trip to Siwah- supposedly an 4 day trip.
All in all, you get the impression that the desert was one area Alexander didn't particularly have too much good luck.
Best regards,
Dean