Alexander the Great Lived Here | Ancient City of Pella

alexander iii king of macedon one of the greatest military commanders in human history undefeated in battle was born here 2 37 years ago [Music] calimera good morning this is pella the capital of the ancient kingdom of macedon you can see there alexander the great square alexander the great or alexander the third king of macedon if you aren't too impressed so far that is understandable hopefully you will be by the end of this uh tour the uh main site i believe is up ahead here it is going to be a hot hot hot day the high for today is 111 degrees fahrenheit it is about 10 o'clock in the morning now and it is going to be scorching very soon so uh i got my car up there going to keep on driving just a short ways and then explore this incredible historical area of macedon macedonia or macedonia pella which became the capital of the macedonian kingdom in the end of the 5th century bc flourished in the hellenistic period the grid of pella with rectangular blocks separated by streets six to nine meters wide so more than 30 feet or so already present in the early 4th century bc enabled the systematic expansion of the city in the following three centuries monumental streets connected the port with the central avenue crossing the agora or the market area and encouraging trade so it says port here we are pella there is thessaloniki where i flew into the airport right there the thermic gulf and so pella was previously a port city because it was connected by a waterway to the thermea gulf and there is the hakadiki peninsula where it was before out there so this is the ancient site it appears that i'm the only one here today for good reason luckily there is a nice breeze going and that is helping a lot so let's wander around here and in the process i'm going to talk a little bit about alexander the great so i have a seven step plan for how to survive hiking in these kinds of brutally hot conditions number one obvious bring water and other fluids number two maybe not quite as obvious hike in sandals i've talked about this in previous videos these are very sturdy hiking sandals great for these kinds of conditions and you do not want to be wearing shoes and socks when it's this hot number three is fairly obvious shorts number four no shirt number five a wet hat number six a wet sarong it won't stay wet forever but uh it'll keep you cool for a while and also keep that sun off you without warming you up number seven is right here put the sarong through the loop of the hat so that it keeps your neck cool and protected from the sun so alexander the great was born in 356 bc his father was king philip of macedon who was assassinated when alexander was 20 years old the assassination is pretty interesting he was killed by one of his bodyguards the reasons are not exactly known but he had seven bodyguards and he was approached by his bodyguard in the course of a marriage ceremony for one of king phillips daughters and it was a instance in which he was not protected as he normally would be various political officials were there for the marriage ceremony and so he wanted to appear more casual the bodyguard approached him stabbed him he had a getaway plan to uh run to a carriage that would then take him away from the city now that was not actually at pella here it was at aegea i believe it was called that was the previous capital of macedon before pella and so he stabs him and then runs off and three of his other bodyguards chase after and the bodyguard that did the assassination trips on a vine and as a result the other bodyguards catch up with him and stab him to death and so with that then alexander not yet the great alexander the young let's get on the other side these are upside down alexander becomes king he then embarks on a very ambitious military campaign one of the uh main missions is to conquer persia persia is basically the kingdom that ultimately became iran and so uh the persian empire has moved into asia minor and so asia minor is present a turkey it is straight across from greece and so it is relatively close just to journey across the aegean sea from asia minor or persia to here and so one of king philip's missions had been to conquer persia and eliminate that threat but he hadn't achieved that in large part perhaps because of his assassination and so uh alexander decides to carry on his father's dreams and goals and uh so he conquers persia and then keeps on going and keeps on going becomes undefeated in battle nobody can stop his army he goes all the way into india and north africa and creates one of the largest kingdoms in history and then he dies unexpectedly at 33 years old quite possibly from poisoning or perhaps just an illness or whatever it is not completely clear but uh his legacy most definitely lived on as well as his accomplishments of expanding the greek you could say empire and so more about alexander the great in a minute but this is a very impressive mosaic you can see the greek language greek letters up there the abduction of helen and here it says place of the rape of helen mosaic mosaic floor depicting the myth of the abduction of helen by theseus the figures are identified by inscriptions forbus theseus helen daenera the mosaic decorated the largest symposium hall andron of the wealthy house it was made of river pebbles of various colors while parts of the outline and other details of the figure's bodies are rendered by thin strips of lead or fired clay gemstones were probably used for the eyes of the figures so the big unanswered question when was this created so here is a depiction of the mosaic since it's hard to see there the abduction of helen so i am not a expert in greek history i learn about it as i have been here to greece many times i just kind of am learning as i go along and so i'm just learning about here in the course of having done previous research to some extent but also just uh as i get here then looking up on my phone information about the various places so helen it hadn't clicked when i read it at first helen helen of troy this is depicting the capture of helen taken to troy which then resulted in the 10 year long siege of troy the trojan war the trojan horse i highly recommend the tv series that depicts this troy fall of a city absolutely incredible also the movie alexander by oliver stone it was widely criticized at the time but uh i saw it recently and i thought that it was a really good movie so i recommend those two as well as you know lots of other movies and books and everything about these various episodes of history which are so just important and integral to the history of western civilization and so you can see the chariot there and the horses running off and helen troy being depicted there being captured and so these mosaics actually date back to the period of alexander the great shortly thereafter as much as i could find out i wasn't able to find a specific date about this one but this one is apparently from around 300 bc alexander the great died in around 3 23 cc and so that would have been just a couple of decades after the death of alexander the great and the reason that these were able to last so long is because they are river stones not paint and so the stone just uh does not discolor or fade away i mean to some extent it appears maybe it was painted originally and more colorful but anyways just incredible to imagine and realize that this is more than two 000 years old and so this very likely depicts alexander the great [Applause] and his companion let's see if they mention the name here deer hunt mosaic floor depicting a deer hunt in the center framed by plant and geometric motifs it adorned the small symposium hall situated at the north wing of the house the main scene which probably reproduces an existent prototype from large scale painting shows two youths who have already captured the animal and they are about to kill it the mosaicist introduces a new technique with the use of small pebbles closely spaced in order to render the plasticity of the bodies while he manages to create a three-dimensional feeling by applying rich chromatic gradations and strong chiroscuro his signature gnosis made it which is preserved above the figures is the oldest inscription mentioning a mosaicist's name known so far so the oldest known mosaic and this one is apparently the largest mosaic and so there is more information on the wikipedia page the stag hunt mosaic the stag hunt mosaic circa 300 bce is a mosaic from a wealthy home of the late 4th century bc the so-called house of the abduction of helen or house of the rape of helen that is this area which i guess you can see the remains here there was a structure here it bears the signature of the ancient greek artist gnosis and so that is the same as what is said here however they continue and add some very crucial information the figure on the right is possibly alexander the great due to the date of this mosaic along with the depicted upsweep of the hare pellet is also the birthplace of alexander the figure to the left wields a double-headed axe likely alluding to hephaestos meaning the figure depicted could be the general hephaestian who is alexander the great's like most trusted companion the dog depicted as possibly paratus accompanying alexander the stag and hound may allude to the myth where an artemis transforms the huntsman action into a stag when he tries to rape her once he is turned into a stag his own hounds turn on him and he is torn apart and so it sounds like it's kind of a mix of myth and real history i guess that it doesn't mention that this is likely alexander the great because it is not absolutely known but the details sound like they really match up as well as the timing in which this was created so just incredible and you can see they are naked there other than their capes okay let's see more of this amazing site the public archive the southwest section of the agora or marketplace housed the public archive here in a two-story building with a central courtyard atrium public documents were transcribed sealed and stored and here the archaeologists found scores of clay seals from public documents which fell from the archive on the second floor hardened by the fire that destroyed the building here too they found broken pens and inkwells stores of clay and stone stamped seals which were used to seal many sorts of documents a grazing cow was commonly used on both seals and coins in pella and so that is how they know this sort of history from so long ago there were documents that still exist many more of course would have been destroyed but in that case then by luck despite the fire they were preserved so another thing that i wanted to talk about here is macedonia or macedonia this is macedonia i'm in macedonia all of this thessaloniki the hakodiki peninsula stretching in all directions is macedonia or macedon now there is also a country of course called north macedonia although they prefer the name just macedonia that is the source of a conflict a argument between greeks and macedonians because the greeks say and correctly so that macedonia is greek however macedonia also extended into the modern day country of macedonia or north macedonia so i don't want to get into who is right and who is wrong other than to say that they are both right to some extent now was alexander the great macedonian or greek and the answer is he was both now the uh word greece is not greek it is latin it is the word that the romans use to refer to the greeks and so the greek word for grief is helles and that refers to helen however it likely does not refer to helen of troy it actually might refer to a male helen i forget who that was but uh anyways helles is greece and so to say was alexander the great greek well first of all the word just doesn't even you know really apply in a sense but beyond that then there were various factions of what we now call greece this part of the world and people who spoke a language ancient greek that the modern greek language and the modern greek people and culture came from now macedonia was kind of a bit of a barbaric land at least according to the greeks south of here in athens etc but there were various different formations of greece if you want to call it that over the millennia there were the spartans and the cretans and you know all kinds of different tribes and different formations of various kingdoms and they were fighting with each other at various times trading with each other regularly friends it's you know very complicated you can't just say that they were all greek because that is a very generalized and simplistic way to look at it so macedonia was part of that culture basically the language that alexander the great spoke was unknown exactly but it was likely a dialect of greek something resembling ancient greek now the modern day macedonian language is spoken by the macedonians just north of here the border not too far away but the modern day macedonian language has essentially nothing to do with the ancient macedonian language other than i'm sure some crossover from being you know in the same region for many centuries but the origins of the language of macedonia the country today is slavic and a totally different thing from the ancient macedonian language and culture now the kingdom of macedon at that time of alexander the great was centered here at the capitol appella and then stretched out and it went into the modern day country of north macedonia i visited sites there that were founded by king philip alexander's father and so the ancient kingdom of macedon covered areas of both northern greece here and also parts of north macedonia and so was alexander the great greek or macedonian well he was both basically you could make a distinction between the two but you can also unify them which is exactly what happened king philip actually invaded the uh more southerly parts of greece and conquered them and unified greece at that time into one nation of uh you know most of the current uh modern-day country of greece and so as alexander the great was embarking on his military campaigns and spreading the culture of his country throughout the world then he was basically spreading greek culture on the mosaics as i pointed out the letters are greek letters maybe there is a little difference between them and modern-day greek language because ancient greek is different from modern greek in the same way that old english is different from modern day english but that is the continuation of that language and culture throughout the millennium the same people living here and the language just morphing transforming changing over time [Applause] [Music] [Music] sanctuary of the mother of the gods and aphrodite mother of the gods and aphrodite as protecting goddesses of the city and the public life were worshiped in a building complex that occupied the entire width of the block north of the agora from the last quarter of the 4th century bc last quarter and so that would have been basically the period right after alexander died to the early 1st century bc a small temple was located on the south side of the complex in a large outdoor area flanked by porticos in the north section of the complex from an earlier construction phase there was another colt area with an altar here the operating needs of the sanctuary were served in outdoor areas with wells and tanks in a hall where meals were served in storerooms and workshops so there is a museum nearby with many of the artifacts from here hopefully i can film in there perhaps the statue sewn on the plaque there is in the museum certainly there will be lots of statues that were collected from the site and so uh discussing whether alexander the great was greek or not might be a little like discussing 2 300 years from now canadians were americans now let's say that in the future sometime then canada invaded america and unified canada and america then it would be debatable right are canadians different from americans well if an american walks into canada anywhere other than quebec then the canadians aren't going to know that he's american most likely because we speak the same language barely any accent difference certainly there is you know new york accent and uh northern canadian accent and you know there are regional accents but uh it's not that noticeable oftentimes and similar culture certainly different structure of government but were very much similar as well as being different in ways as well now that might not be the best analogy because i would imagine that if a athenian walked into ancient macedonia they would know you are not from around here that was a very different time period in which probably if you walk to the next village they would know you're not from there right away based on your accent or your dress or just uh not knowing you or whatever and so uh not a perfect analogy but basically you can make a distinction between the greeks of other parts of helles and the macedonians you can make a distinction between many different peoples of that time in this part of the world and yet at the same time they were to a great extent a similar people and culture all right let's go see the main site there with all the large columns [Music] this is the house of dionysus [Music] the dionysus house the largest house in pella the dionysus house has two courtyards the south one with doric columns and the north with ionic the entrance was on the east side and there was a second story on the north side off the doric gallery on the south side where at least two banqueting rooms with mosaic floors and large anti-chambers a lion hunt and dionysus on a panther are represented in these mosaics the dionysus house was constructed in 325 to 300 bc so it was started around the time that alexander died [Applause] place of the centaurs mosaic place of the dionysus mosaic and so it was in that square there same with that so maybe it is in the museum we'll find out and here we have the amazon nomakee mosaic floor adorned with a combat between a greek and two amazons the central scene is framed with two zones decorated with plant motifs and animals the composition does not seem to imitate a specific prototype it is rather the mosaicists original synthesis place of the amazon monkey mosaic so that concludes the tour of the ancient site here but there is much more to see because there are the other things scattered around some of which are just like sitting there right in town and so i will explore around check out some of those and then go to the museum and here in the center of town something very ancient no information about it look at that looks like a woman i guess perhaps it was an ancient fountain or maybe a combination of a fountain and a temple or sarcophagus or something built very sturdily to withstand the tests of time and it is hollow inside so that pipe is modern you can see here [Music] [Music] so [Music] oh [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] you

Channel: Gabriel Traveler

Views: 36,791

Keywords: Gabriel Traveler, Gabriel Morris, travel, traveling, budget travel, travel video, adventure, adventure travel, world travel, tourism, holiday, vacation, backpacking, Alexander the Great, Alexander, king, Macedon, Macedonia, Pella, Greece, Greek, history, historical, ancient history, ancient ruins, ancient city

Id: NUnP2Uyg_R8

Length: 33min 46sec (2026 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 11 2021