Alexander the Great in the Quran River in the Punjab in 326 BC, his army nearly mutinied and refused to march further east, exhausted by years of campaigning. Alexander's desire to reach "the ends of the Earth" was instilled by his tutor Aristotle: Alexander derived his concept of `Asia' from the teaching of Aristotle, for whom `the inhabited earth' was surrounded by `the Great sea' Ocean, and was divided into three areas – `Europe, Libya and Asia.' Thus the earth was not round but flat, and `Asia' was limited on the west by the Tanais (Don), the inland sea and the Nile, and on the east
Kalanos Kalanos Kalanos, also spelled Calanus ( – 323 BCE) was a gymnosophist (literally "naked philosopher"), a philosopher from Taxila who accompanied Alexander the Great to Persis and later committed suicide by self-immolation. It was from Kalanos that Alexander came to know of Dandamis, the leader of their group, whom Alexander later went to meet in the forest. Plutarch indicates his real name was Sphínēs and that he was from Taxila, but since he greeted people with the word "Kalē!" - perhaps "kallāṇa (mitta)" "Greetings (friend)" - the Greeks called him Kalanos. Kalanos lived at Taxila and led an austere life.