Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire, marched as far east as the Punjab, and was planning a campaign into Arabia when he died at age 32. Where did he actually die?
Alexander died in the palace at Babylon (modern Iraq) on 10 or 11 June 323 BC after a ten-day fever. The cause is still disputed — typhoid, West Nile, malaria, alcoholic complications, and slow poisoning have all had defenders. He never made it home; his body was hijacked by his general Ptolemy and brought to Alexandria, where it became a major tourist attraction for the next several centuries until the tomb was lost in late antiquity. He had personally burned Persepolis nine years earlier.
Read the full facts →Alexander III of Macedon (356–323 BC) was the king of the Hellenic kingdom of Macedon who, between 336 and 323 BC, conquered the Achaemenid Persian Empire and built the largest empire of the classical world before his death at age 32. His campaigns spread Greek language and culture across the Near East, Egypt, and Central Asia, producing the Hellenistic civilization that lasted for the next three centuries.
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