Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on when you are reading this blog and doing your planning.  April is moving by quickly.   I am going to continue with the story of Alexander the Great.  I really wish Odessey would actually number these episodes because I have been trying to make sure I get all the episodes reviewed.  Today’s episode is called the City of the Lady Moon and it has a run time of 47:30.

When Alexander the Great went east to conquer Persia, he would establish sixteen cities along the way.  However, this theory is now thought to be false.  It could have been that the cities were already existing when Alexander went through and he merely built upon them.  David Adams is in search of what remains of these cities.  These cities are in Northern Afghanistan, a territory that has its challenges.  So what did David Adams learn along the way?

Alexander the Great was looking to add the Emperor of India to his extensive title list.  He would have marched through what would become known as Afghanistan.  He would have encountered rough terrain much like David Adams.  Along the way, Alexander would have built cities, however, there was no record of the cities in the landscape so Adams wanted to find some evidence of what Alexander had built.  He will encounter the same harsh environment that Alexander the Great would have encountered.  Adams and his crew eventually get lost, and I would speculate that Alexander the Great could have gotten lost as well.

Adams makes his way to the Oxus River, it is along the river that there was a legendary city was built.  It could have been the Alexandria on the Oxus would have been built.  A sandstorm may prevent Adams and his crew from crossing.  A police escort is provided to Adams and his crew because it is a troubled area.  The Oxus River, much like the Nile River is constantly changing.  On top of the challenges of the river, Adams will encounter some trouble with the locals in his continued quest to learn more about Alexander the Great.

Adams will have to meet with a local commander to gain access to a site that has some connection to Alexander the Great.  He has to reassure the commander that he is not a spy and that he is interested in ancient history.  Where he is doing, no foreigner has visited before.  It takes some time but Adams gains the trust of the Commander.  After a few adjustments to the vehicle, Adams and his crew press on.

Eventually, Adams arrives at the ruins of an ancient city, it is a site where no excavation has happened.  Therefore, not much is known about the history of this city.  It is a city that lies on the Kunduz Delta and it is called Qy-i-Zal.  This city is massive with large walls surrounding it.  There is evidence that the Greeks would have built this city and they would have built city to keep watch over the Oxus and the Kunduz Rivers.

Adams takes to a hill overlooking the city.  Alexander the Great would have been at the city to put down a rebellion among the locals.  This could have been the city that Alexander built, but the finds just below the surface show that the city was younger than Alexander the Great’s arrival.  However, there are signs that the Greeks built the city.  Adams concludes that this was not the Alexandria on the Oxus.   Sadly, this city will probably never be excavated.

Adams continues to move through Afghanistan and he moves onto a new target city.  This city is in a specialized military zone, and so he needs to get permission from the governor of the province.  So will Adams get permission to travel to the city?  If he does get permission, what will Adams find?  Continue to watch the rest of the episode to find out.

I am amazed to see how Adams navigated his time in this episode.  However, every challenge was met head-on and he was able to continue on with Alexander the Great’s story.  I would still recommend showing this episode to a history class as well as a geography class.

Hello, and good morning.  I hope things are going well.  Today I am working through Alexander the Great’s Lost World series with David Adams and I am going to do another episode from this series and it probably is out of order again.  It looks like there were five episodes in the series and this is the fourth episode I am working on.  This series really does help with expanding the understanding of Alexander the Great.  It is called the Source of Civilization. The run time for this episode is 49:22.

As Alexander the Great marched east along mountain passes he would have encountered a rugged landscape.  He would have encountered forgotten cities and a variety of tribes on his journey to India.  In this episode, David Adams looks for the source of the River Oxus.  He will encounter the same landscapes as Alexander the Great, in search of the ultimate prize: India.  However, like Alexander the Great, David Adams will have to travel along tangled and oftentimes dangerous ancient pathways.  What sites does Adams encounter along the way?

Over four years and a series of battles, Alexander the Great finally defeated the Persian Empire.  However, he had his eyes on a bigger prize: India.  To cross into India he would have to cross the Hindu-Kush Mountains, however the route he would have taken is lost to history.  David Adams has an advantage when it comes to crossing this mountain range: four-wheel drive.  Adams photographs some camels along the way, and the camels are still used to travel and transport goods. 

Alexander the Great was following in the footsteps of Dionysus, a Greek god.  This god had made his way to India and now Alexander the Great wanted to do the same thing.  He would have made his way on horseback, and now Adams finds the end of the road and has to trek into India on foot.  It is here that he encounters a people who call themselves the Children of Alexander the Great.  These people believe that they are the direct descendants of Alexander the Great.  The people are farmers and they move their cattle up the mountain in the summer.  This was a sweet section because Adams takes a picture of the children and shows the children the picture.  Anyway, Adams notes that the picture have a  very different look in comparison to the Afghani people he encountered earlier.

Alexander the Great would have encountered the ancestors of these people and he called them the children of Dionysus.  This would have shown that the people were already in the mountains before Alexander the Great arrived.  Adams learns further about the tribe and where they originated from and follows them to the source of the Oxus River.  It is a place where there are no roads and no places to stop.  It was the place where East met west as the trading caravans converged in the area.  There would have been hundreds of caravans who met here to trade and transport goods over the trade routes.

The Caravan that Adams takes part in would have been smaller in comparison to the baggage trains of Alexander the Great.  Keeping this massive amount of people together would have been a challenge for Alexander the Great.  There would have been massive hills and mountain passageways to cross over.  Even Adams is out of breath as he walks along the same paths.  So does Adams make it to India?  What else does Adams encounter along the way?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

It is amazing that David Adams’ went to Afghanistan to film this documentary.  I bet he could not do that now.  I still wish Odyssey would have time-stamped this series.  This episode was not as intense as the other ones.  There probably was not that sense of danger along this stretch of the trip and I wonder if Adams felt that too.  Adams continues to be curious and enjoys taking in the sites.  He is a man who must love constantly learning new things.  This was a very enjoyable episode to watch.  I would show this episode to a history class as well as a geography class.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening I hope that this day is going well for you.  April continues to press on and David Adams continues to explore the lost sea between Greece and the lands of Persia.  I am sure I am doing this series out of order, but that’s just typical for this blog, laugh out loud.  The run time for this episode is 48:00.  It is called the Mother of All Cities.

David Adams continues his journey to explore Alexander the Great’s lost world.  When he conquered the Persian Empire, he would become the first Western to rule the East.  During his campaign to conquer Persia, he would have encountered a civilization as developed as the Greeks.  Today, Alexander the Great is known as the Devil, however, he had left behind his mark.  He built many cities and David Adams is in search of one that has been lost to time: Bactra.

David Adams begins his journey at the rarely used Afghanistan and Turkmenistan board.  He and his camera crew catch a ride with a trucker.  It is a border that no Westerner dares to tread.  Eventually, he is stopped and the Afghan guards have arranged for a vehicle.  This is a sneaky part of the documentary because his cameraman had left the camera running.  Eventually, David Adams crosses over into Afghanistan.

It is here, that a kingdom arose along the Oxus River.  It had a grand capital and for Alexander the Great taking this capital would help him conquer the Persian Empire.  This capital was known as the Mother of All Cities by the Greeks, but little remains of this capital.  Adams and his crew cautiously proceed through northern Afghanistan.  David Adams and his guides quickly make their way to the first stop.  The guides have been dodging bullets in order to document the ancient ruins around the area.  Their first stop for the night is a tea house.

This area has been famous for trade and that tradition continues into the modern day.  The market is famous for making carpets and that tradition continues today.  The history of the missing capital is woven into the carpets.  David and his guide examine a carpet and the geometric patterns in the carpet reflect the fortified cities of this lost civilization.  However, what did these cities look like?  What did Alexander the Great encounter on his way to conquer Persia?

Adams and his guides continue their way and make their way to an archeological site.  The area would have been considered frontier in the past as well.  Most of the city is buried in the sand, however Adams plans to use a camera trick to reveal the fortified city in question.  With a lovely recreation, the city would have been grand, protected by walls.  It was one of a series of forts that would have been used for defensive purposes.  These forts would have earned the kingdom “the land of a thousand cities.”  Adams continues to press on to locate the lost capital of this civilization: Bactra.

On the way to Bactra, Adams makes another stop to learn more about the lost capital.  It is another fortress town.  Over the years it had been looted, but there are still remains of the citadel.  Many of the finds that were discovered come after the time of Alexander the Great.  There are rumors that this lost citadel is Bactra, but Adams disagrees.  After a detour look at one of the oldest mosques in Eastern Asia.  After this quick stop, Adams continues to press on eventually meeting a guy who knows a guy who deals with antiques.  To learn more about Adams’ journey through Afghanistan continue to watch the rest of the episode.

I wish that Odyssey YouTube would put the city names in its description because I had to dig around to find an accurate spelling of the name.  I was not going to attempt to spell it.  That said and out of the way, it was an interesting documentary about something that you NEVER hear about period.  David continues to do well telling the story of his search for Bactra.  You also felt the underlying danger through the screen.  I would show this documentary to a history class.

Good morning!  I hope things are going well for you teachers.  Time to do a documentary on Alexander the Great.  I am going to do a documentary featuring David Adams.  I have not done a documentary from him in quite some time so today I am going to do one.  The run time for this documentary is 49:30.  It is part of Alexander’s Lost World Series.  This episode is called Explorations on an Ancient Sea.

In the high plains of Asia, the remains of an ancient world are hidden.  Alexander the Great made his way to these plains to conquer the world.  He was going to fight against the Persian Empire and his campaign would take him east.  The landscape he would have encountered would have been very different from today.  In fact, there was a civilization that thrived on a large inland sea in this area.  David Adams is in search of this lost civilization and this lost sea.

In this episode, David Adams is going to take a trek on the course of the River Oxus.  This river was home to the Oxus Civilization, a civilization that has been lost to history.  Adams begins his journey in Greece.  The Ancient Greeks were drawn to the East, and there were many legends about the voyages East.  What truth lies behind the legends?  Jason and the Argonauts was a famous tale of the voyages and David Adams sails in a replica of the boat that Jason would have used.

Prince Jason and his crew sailed east in search of the golden fleece.  On the surface it was a story about prosperity, however, there may be clues that the story was about real-life voyages east.  David then explains the voyage behind the story of Jason and the Argonauts.  Jason and his crew would have ended up in the Black Sea.  However, there are older versions of the story say that Jason had made his way past the Black Sea.   Does this indicate that the sea levels were higher?  Were the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea connected at some point?  David Adams elaborates his theory on this.

In Greece, David Adams made his way to a site that was older than the Jason and the Argonauts took place.  It was where a sea-faring people settled.  It was where people could stay and farm, which would allow the people to travel on the sea.  Adams suggests that this was where Jason and the Argonauts began.  The people who would have settled here came from the Neolithic period and according to rock carvings they would have sailed on large boats.

Adams makes his way to Southern Russia to explore the boggy wetlands between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.  The area is part of a protected area, but there are plans to open up the seaway once again.  This means that sailors could make their way from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea once again.  During Alexander the Great’s time, he would have sent out scouts to see if he would be able to sail on this waterway.  So Adams, following the footsteps of Alexander the Great, makes his way to the Caspian Sea through Turkmenistan.  He is looking for the River Oxus.  It would have been a vast waterway joining the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

David Adams wants to make his way to the ancient river bed.  How does he do it?  What does Adams learn during this journey?  What extreme climates will Adams encounter?  To learn more about Adam’s journey continue to watch the rest of the episode. 

This episode reminds me of the Secrets of the Dead episode featuring the Amazon Warrior Women, and how the myth was based on real-life warrior women.  In all honesty, I was waiting for some unimaginative historian or scientist to pooh-pooh Adam’s theories.  Anyway, David Adams is an enjoyable narrator and looks to tell a story about what he is discovering.  In my opinion, he is very nice to listen to.  This documentary was very well done and Adams lays out the story very well.  This would be a documentary I would show to a history class and because we are talking about Greek myths I would show this to a literature class.

The Inca ruled South America for years.  They were the people of the sun.  They built grand cities.  Eventually, they would be destroyed by the Spanish in their quest for gold.  David Adams is on a search for a lost city of gold.  These were cities that were never sacked by the Spanish.  Perhaps hidden in these jungles is the legendary “Great Sun Disk of the Incas.”  Will David Adams find this lost city, tune into this episode to find out.

​After the Spanish invaded, the Incas retreated to the jungle and found refuge in its tree.  David Adams’ first tip leads him to meet Gary Ziegler, an archeologist.  Gary talks about finding major Incan roads and these roads always lead to somewhere.  Perhaps following these roads will lead to a lost city.  David will start in Cusco, the ancient Incan capital.  Here he takes part in the ancient Incan celebration of the Sun.  Gary heads up into the mountains.  David wants to learn more about the Incan Empire.
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The Sun was the Incan Supreme god and they built their temples to the sun.  David goes to the Temple of Gold.  The gold is gone now but the walls were covered with gold and there were figures that were in the temple.  The first Spanish explorers stripped the temple of the gold, leaving behind the sun disk.  That too eventually vanished before the Spanish could return.  Where did it go?  Where was it hidden?
After taking in the sites of the Incan festival and learning more about the Incan people, David heads up into the mountains.  He will follow a trail over 500 years old and into the lost realm of the Incas.

From the start, the Incas believed that they were the children of the sun.  They were born on an island in the middle of Lake Titicaca.  Soon they would move from the island and into the mountains, where they would build an empire.  They ruled the largest empire since the Romans and they built a network of roads.  These roads ran north and south and went across the South American Continent.  David threads his way through the sacred valley and into another town.  It was in this valley where corn and potatoes were grown.  Corn and potatoes were a staple of the Incan Empire. 

David continues to make his way up to the mountains and learns more about the Incan culture along the way.  The trip into the mountains is exhausting.  However, as the trip moves forward, water is discovered and where there is water there are Incan ruins.  An earlier explorer found a watercourse and it leads to some Incan remains.  This site was important to the Incan people because one of the Incan rulers re-established an Incan capital.  It is here that David’s guides put together an oven and cook a meal.  The Incans were masons who had no competition.  Do the people of the mountains still consider themselves Incan?  The answer is yes.

David’s journey continues into the mountains to meet up with Gary Ziegler.  While the porters look for Gary’s camp, David explores the area.  The Incas had destroyed some of the roads to stop the Spanish from coming and taking their holy places.  However, even with the roads destroyed, it would have been a challenge for the Spanish to make their way up to the mountains with their heavy armor and horses.  How did the Incas manage to build their cities in the clouds?  What were their motivations?  Continue to watch this episode to find out.

This would be a good documentary to show for a high school and middle school history class.