Alexander III of Macedon became king in 336 BC at the age of 20. From his father, he inherited a rich kingdom, powerful dream and excellent army. The dream quickly became reality when Alexander conquered the Achaemenid Persian Empire – the largest and most powerful empire known up to that time. For 13 years, Alexander expanded his empire, which stretched from modern Greece into India, including Egypt to the south and Uzbekistan in the north. Only when his army refused to go any further was he forced to stop.

Alexander was a military and organizational genius – who claimed divine descent. He was educated by Aristotle, recklessly brave (wounded over 30 times during his campaigns) and charismatic. At his death in 323 BC, aged 32, Alexander left the world permanently changed.

Founding over 20 cities, mostly named after himself, the Macedonian king spread Greek (Hellenistic) culture and ideas throughout his dominions. Greek language and culture would form the intellectual foundation throughout western and central Eurasia for centuries to come, influencing art, religion, science and philosophy. ough short-lived, Alexander’s empire developed an unprecedented cross-cultural infrastructure and uniform coinage that facilitated the development of the Silk Roads trade network in the following centuries. Today, his coins are still unearthed from Greece to China, and the legend of Alexander lives on in folk tales told from England to India in dozens of languages.