In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great
Introduction
stills from Alexander the Great
In 335 BC Alexander of Macedonia set off on an expedition to conqueror the world. The voyage of Alexander the Great covered more than 22,000 miles in ten years, from Greece to India and back, through some of the most difficult and unforgiving terrain.
In 1996, more than 2000 years later, Michael Wood was hot on his trail, following, as closely as possible, in the footsteps of Alexander and the army that he drove to achieve the impossible.
While the Maya Vision film crew lacked the timescale, budget and manpower of Alexander's original conquest, they did have the advantages of modern transport. Up to a point. Travelling by jeep, bus, truck, train, retired Russian ambulance and occasional lifts in helicopters, they discovered that some parts of the world are still completely inaccessible to anything but the feet of camels, mules, horses or occasionally humans.
Leaving countless baffled border checkpoint guards in their wake, the Maya Vision crew travelled through 16 countries. They crossed post-Gulf War Iraq and entered Afghanistan during the rise of the Taleban. They crossed the Great Sea of Sand, the Great Salt Desert and the Desert of Death and climbed some of the highest mountain passes in the world.