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
Alexander the Great fallen statue of Xerxes as if it were a live person: Alexander then chased Darius, first into Media, and then Parthia. The Persian king no longer controlled his own destiny, and was taken prisoner by Bessus, his Bactrian satrap and kinsman. As Alexander approached, Bessus had his men fatally stab the Great King and then declared himself Darius' successor as Artaxerxes V, before retreating into Central Asia to launch a guerrilla campaign against Alexander. Alexander buried Darius' remains next to his Achaemenid predecessors in a regal funeral. He claimed that, while dying, Darius had named him as his successor to