The empire of Alexander the Great

In just thirteen years, Alexander III of Macedon marched from Greece to the Indus and never lost a battle. Inheriting a disciplined army from his father Philip II, he crossed into Asia in 334 BCE, shattered the vast Achaemenid Persian Empire at Issus and Gaugamela, and by 323 BCE ruled from Egypt to the edge of India.

His sudden death at Babylon in 323 BCE left no clear heir, and the empire was carved up by his generals, the Diadochi, into the Hellenistic kingdoms. Use ChronoAtlas to follow his campaign and see how Greek culture spread across three continents in its wake.

Key facts

• Alexander founded around twenty cities named Alexandria, the greatest of which, in Egypt, became a centre of learning for centuries.
• His victory at Gaugamela in 331 BCE broke the Persian Empire founded by Cyrus the Great two centuries earlier.
• The Hellenistic age that followed fused Greek, Egyptian and Persian culture across the Near East.
• He died at Babylon aged just 32, and his empire split into the Ptolemaic, Seleucid and Antigonid kingdoms.