Alexander the Great, King of Macedon from 336 - 323 B.C., may claim the title of the greatest military leader the world has ever known. His empire spread from Gibraltar to the Punjab, and he made Greek the lingua franca of his world, the language that helped spread early Christianity.

After his father, Philip II, unified most of the reluctant city-states of Greece, Alexander continued his conquests by taking Thrace and Thebes (in the area of Greece), Syria, Phoenicia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Egypt, and on to the Punjab, in northern India.

See how Alexander the Great conquered the mighty Persian Empire as well as other lands in India carving out one of the largest empires in history.