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Alexandria Eschate (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 , Latin: Alexandria Ultima, English meaning "Alexandria the Furthest") was founded by Alexander III of Macedon (commonly referred to as Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great , also known as Alexander III of Macedon was an ancient Greeks King of Macedon . He was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle....
) in August 329 BCE as his most northerly base in Central Asia
Central Asia

Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south....
. It was established in the southwestern part of the Fergana Valley
Fergana Valley

The Fergana Valley or Farghana Valley is a region in Central Asia spreading across eastern Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Shakhimardan khanate Pamirs Central Asia....
, on the southern bank of the river Jaxartes
Syr Darya

Syr Darya is a river in Central Asia, sometimes known as the Jaxartes or Yaxartes from its Ancient Greek name . The Greek name is derived from Old Persian, Yakhsha Arta , a reference to the color of the river's water....
 (modern name Syr Darya
Syr Darya

Syr Darya is a river in Central Asia, sometimes known as the Jaxartes or Yaxartes from its Ancient Greek name . The Greek name is derived from Old Persian, Yakhsha Arta , a reference to the color of the river's water....
), at the location of the modern city of Khujand
Khujand

Khujand , also transliterated as Khudzhand, , formerly Khodjend or Khodzhent until 1939 and Leninabad until 1992, is the second-largest city of Tajikistan....
 (also written ??????, ????, Khüjand, Khodzhent, Khudchand, Chodjend: formerly Ispisar, Leninabad, Leninobod, ?????????, ???????????), in the state of Tajikistan
Tajikistan

Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east....
.

Alexander built a 6 kilometer brick wall around the city which, according to the ancient authors, was completed in only about twenty days.






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Euthydemusi
Alexandria Eschate (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 , Latin: Alexandria Ultima, English meaning "Alexandria the Furthest") was founded by Alexander III of Macedon (commonly referred to as Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great , also known as Alexander III of Macedon was an ancient Greeks King of Macedon . He was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle....
) in August 329 BCE as his most northerly base in Central Asia
Central Asia

Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south....
. It was established in the southwestern part of the Fergana Valley
Fergana Valley

The Fergana Valley or Farghana Valley is a region in Central Asia spreading across eastern Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Shakhimardan khanate Pamirs Central Asia....
, on the southern bank of the river Jaxartes
Syr Darya

Syr Darya is a river in Central Asia, sometimes known as the Jaxartes or Yaxartes from its Ancient Greek name . The Greek name is derived from Old Persian, Yakhsha Arta , a reference to the color of the river's water....
 (modern name Syr Darya
Syr Darya

Syr Darya is a river in Central Asia, sometimes known as the Jaxartes or Yaxartes from its Ancient Greek name . The Greek name is derived from Old Persian, Yakhsha Arta , a reference to the color of the river's water....
), at the location of the modern city of Khujand
Khujand

Khujand , also transliterated as Khudzhand, , formerly Khodjend or Khodzhent until 1939 and Leninabad until 1992, is the second-largest city of Tajikistan....
 (also written ??????, ????, Khüjand, Khodzhent, Khudchand, Chodjend: formerly Ispisar, Leninabad, Leninobod, ?????????, ???????????), in the state of Tajikistan
Tajikistan

Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east....
.

Alexander built a 6 kilometer brick wall around the city which, according to the ancient authors, was completed in only about twenty days. As with the other cities he founded, had a group of his retired wounded veterans settle there.

A Hellenistic outpost in Central Asia

Alexandria Eschate was located around 300km north of Alexandria on the Oxus
Ai-Khanoum

Ai-Khanoum or Ay Khanum , was founded in the 4th century BCE, following the conquests of Alexander the Great and was one of the primary cities of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom....
 in Bactria
Bactria

Bactria is a historical region of Greater Iran. Known by the ancient Greeks as "Bactriana" the region is located between the range of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya ; in later times, the region became known as Tokharistan. The name of the region has survived to present time in the name of Afghan province "Balkh"....
, and being in Sogdian
Sogdiana

Sogdiana or Sogdia was the ancient civilization of an Iranian peoples and a province of the Achaemenid Empire Persian Empire, the eighteenth in the list in the Behistun Inscription of Darius I of Persia ....
 territory had to sustain numerous conflicts with the local population. After 250 BCE, the city probably remained in contact with the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom

The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world, covering Bactria and Sogdiana in Central Asia from 250 to 125 BCE....
 centered on Bactria, especially when the Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus I
Euthydemus I

Euthydemus I was allegedly a native of Magnesia and possible Satrap of Sogdiana, who overturned the dynasty of Diodotus of Bactria and became a Greco-Bactrian king in about 230 BCE according to Polybius....
 extended his control to Sogdiana.

Contacts with China

The city was also located around 400km west of the Tarim Basin
Tarim Basin

The Tarim Basin is a large endorheic basin occupying an area of more than 400,000 km2. It is located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in PRC's far west....
, today's region of Xinjiang
Xinjiang

Xinjiang is an autonomous region of China of the People's Republic of China. It is a large, sparsely populated area, spanning over 1.6 million sq....
 in China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, where the Yuezhi
Yuezhi

The Yuezhi or Rouzhi , also known as the Da Yuezhi or Da Rouzhi , were an ancient Central Asian people.They are believed by most scholars to have been an Indo-European people, and may have been the same as or closely related to the Tocharians of Classical sources....
, an Indo-European people were established. There are indications that Greek expeditions were led as far as Kashgar
Kashgar

Kashgar or Kashi ...
 in Xinjiang. According to the Greek historian Strabo
Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
, the Greeks "extended their empire even as far as the Seres
Seres

Seres was the ancient Greek language and Latin name for the inhabitants of the northwestern part of modern China, . It meant "of silk," or people of the "land where silk comes from." The country of the Seres was Serica....
 and the Phryni
Phryni

The Phryni were an ancient people of eastern Central Asia, probably located in the eastern part of the Tarim Basin, in an area connected to that of the Seres and the Tocharians....
" (Strabo XI.II.I), possibly leading to the first known contacts between China and the West around 200 BCE.

The descendants of the Greeks in Ferghana may be the Dayuan
Dayuan

The Dayuan or Ta-Yuan were a people of Ferghana in Central Asia, described in the Chinese literature historical works of Records of the Grand Historian and the Book of Han, which follow the travels of Chinese explorer Zhang Qian in 130 BCE and the numerous embassies that followed him into Central Asia thereafter....
 (lit. "Great Ionians") identified in the Chinese historical record of the Han Dynasty
Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. The Han Dynasty was ruled by the family known as the Liu clan who had peasant origins....
, starting with the embassies of Zhang Qian
Zhang Qian

Zhang Qian was an imperial envoy to the world outside of China in the 2nd century BCE, during the time of the Han Dynasty. He was the first official diplomat to bring back reliable information about Central Asia to the Chinese imperial court, then under Emperor Wu of Han, and played an important pioneering role in the Chinese colonization an...
 around 130 BCE. If so, they were the actors of the first major interaction between an urbanized Indo-European culture and the Chinese civilization, which led to the opening up the Silk Road
Silk Road

The Silk Road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, including North Africa and Europe....
 from the 1st century BCE.

According to the Roman writer Curtius
Quintus Curtius Rufus

Quintus Curtius Rufus was a Ancient Rome historian. It is generally thought that he has written his works during the reign of the Emperor Claudius or Vespasian....
, the descendants of these soldiers still retained their Hellenistic culture at the time of his writing, around 30 BCE
30

Year 30 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar....
.

In Fiction


Alexandria Eschate is the final destination of Euxenus son of Eutychides of the deme of Pallene, the protagonist of "Alexander at the World's End" by Tom Holt
Tom Holt

Tom Holt is a United Kingdom novelist.He was born in London, the son of novelist Hazel Holt, and was educated at Westminster School, Wadham College, Oxford, and The College of Law, London....
.

"Horses of Heaven", by Gillian Bradshaw
Gillian Bradshaw

Gillian Marucha Bradshaw is an United States writer of Historical novel, historical fantasy, children's literature, science fiction, and contemporary science-based novels, who currently lives in UK....
, is set in Alexandria Eschate, c.140 BCE.

Footnotes


External links