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The tomb of Alexander the Great is attested in several historical accounts, but its current exact location remains an enduring mystery. Following Alexander's death in Babylon , his body was initially buried in Memphis by one of his generals, Ptolemy I Soter , before being transferred to Alexandria , where it was reburied. [ 1 ]
But the story showed where such a climb would lead, and proved that the great Alexander "was one of the greatest fools the world has ever seen". [ 10 ] Rice and Boardman have both argued that the figure on the Anglo-Saxon Alfred Jewel intended to represent this scene in order to represent the notion of one coming to knowledge through sight.
Archaeological site of Pella, Greece, Alexander's birthplace. Alexander III was born in Pella, the capital of the Kingdom of Macedon, [10] on the sixth day of the ancient Greek month of Hekatombaion, which probably corresponds to 20 July 356 BC (although the exact date is uncertain).
According to legend, Alexander the Great came to visit the philosopher Diogenes of Sinope. Alexander wanted to fulfill a wish for Diogenes and asked him what he desired. [5] As told by Diogenes Laërtius, Diogenes replied, "Stand out of my light." [6] Plutarch provides a longer version of the story, which begins after Alexander arrives in Corinth:
In the Qissat al-Iskandar, Alexander the Great is depicted as a civilizing hero and monotheist [4] that travels across the world, builds the Wall against Gog and Magog, searches for the Water of Life (Fountain of Youth), and encounters angels who give him a "wonder-stone" that both weighs more than any other stone but is also as light as dust. [5]
The Alexander Mosaic of Pompeii, depicting Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, wearing the linothorax [6] Beginning around 575 BC, artists in the Aegean often show a distinctive style of armour with a smooth piece wrapped around the chest, two flaps over the shoulders, and a skirt of flaps covering the hips and belly. [7]
According to legend, Alexander went on pilgrimage to the Siwa Oasis, the sanctuary of the Greco-Egyptian deity Zeus Ammon in 331 BC. There, he was pronounced by the Oracle to be the son of Zeus Ammon, [2] allowing him to therefore have the Horns of Ammon, which themselves followed from Egyptian iconography of Ammon as a ram-headed god or, in his Greek-form, a man with ram horns. [3]
There is evidence to suggest that orally transmitted legends about Alexander the Great found their way to the Quran. [26] In the story of Dhu al-Qarnayn, "The Two-Horned One" (chapter al-Kahf, verse 83–94), Dhu al-Qarnayn is identified by most Western and traditional Muslim scholars as a reference to Alexander the Great. [27] [28] [29]