By Siri McGuire
Finally, an excuse to put my random passion to use.
1.
He is 2,368 years young.
2.
He was way cooler than Julius Caesar. (Even
Caesar thought so.)
3.
It is possible he was the great-great-great-great…
etc. uncle of Cleopatra. Ptolemy I Soter, who founded the Ptolemaic dynasty in
Egypt, was an alleged half-brother of Alexander the Great. Guess what leader
ended Ptolemaic rule in Egypt? Cleopatra.
4.
All traces of his tomb disappeared after the 4th
century AD. The location of his tomb is considered to be one of the greatest
archeological mysteries of all time. (And
it’s my mission in life to find it.)
5.
He named a city in Asia after his beloved steed,
Bucephalus . ( Oh yeah, and twenty cities after himself.)
6.
The Roman Emperor Augustus, when visiting the
tomb of Alexander the Great, accidentally
knocked off the conqueror’s nose. Common mistake, right?
7.
He literally altered the face of the Earth. To
conquer the island of Tyre, Alexander’s army built a causeway to connect the
island to the mainland. Tyre has never been an island since- it’s still a
full-fledged peninsula.
8.
When asked on his deathbed to whom he would
leave his kingdom, he allegedly replied, “to the strongest,”- his last words. Though
awfully poetic, these last words weren’t really helpful to his top generals,
who would spend the next forty years fighting over what Alexander left behind.
9.
His mother, Olympias, was pretty crazy. She’s
accused of having a hand in the murder of Alexander’s father, Philip the II,
poisoning Alexander’s half-brother (also named Philip), and playing with snakes
frequently.
10.
He never lost a battle, and his military
strategies are still studied in military academies across the United States.
So why should you care? Good question. I’m still figuring
that one out myself. Maybe I’m just weird. But anyway, if you think about it,
if you die and 2,000+ years later people like me are writing blog posts about
you, that’s pretty impressive.
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