Key learning points

1. Defeating the Persian Empire and expanding Greek control into Egypt and India were not Alexander's only achievements.
2. He sliced the famous Gordian knot in two and conquered Babylon, a city the Greeks could scarcely imagine.
3. He founded the great city of Alexandria in Egypt, which came to be ruled by one of his generals, Ptolemy.
4. Ptolemy and his son tried to turn Alexandria into the greatest of all Greek cities, building an incredible library.
5. Alexandria became a centre of learning which attracted brilliant minds like Euclid and Galen.

Keywords

• Conquer - to gain something, such as land, by force is to conquer it

• Library - a library is a place that has many books and other learning resources

• Attract - to be appealing in some way to others is to attract people

Common misconception