Alexander the Great in the Quran called them the Caspian Gates. Twenty and two Kings did I shut up therein. These pseudepigraphic letters from Alexander to his mother Olympias and his tutor Aristotle, describing his marvellous adventures at the end of the World, date back to the original Greek recension α written in the 4th century in Alexandria. The letters are "the literary expression of a living popular tradition" that had been evolving for at least three centuries before the Quran was written. Several historical figures, both Muslim and Christian, searched for Alexander's Gate and several different identifications were made with actual walls. During the Middle
Alexander the Great in the Quran one," is interpreted as a reference to Alexander the Great. The Quran's story describes Dhul-Qarnayn building a great barrier in order to enclose the nations of Gog and Magog who "do great mischief in the earth." A similar story about Alexander is found in the "Alexander romance" and the origins of the story can be dated as far back as 329 BC. The building of gates in the Caucasus Mountains by Alexander to repel the barbarian peoples identified with Gog and Magog has ancient provenance and the wall is known as the Gates of Alexander or the Caspian Gates. The