The most celebrated general in ancient history. Alexander The Great (356–323 BCE) established an empire stretching from the Mediterranean to the Himalayas and the Indus River and opened up routes to India. Geographers, astronomers, botanists, and scientists accompanied his army. The maps his surveyors made were the basis for Asian geography for centuries. Alexander corrected misconceptions about the East. When he died, aged 33, Alexander's armies had travelled 32,000 km from central Europe to India. He had established more than seventy cities - fifteen of them named Alexandria. The first was Alexandria in Egypt, founded in 331; the most remote was Alexandria-on-Jaxartes, located beyond Samarkand. He sent reconnaissance missions to the Upper Nile, the Persian Gulf, and the Caspian Sea. Although he did not discover unknown lands, he opened routes that spread Greek influence through western Asia. See here for a more detailed biographical sketch.