Alexander the Great spread Greek culture throughout his vast empire. After his death, Greeks settled across lands from Egypt to India, blending their culture with local customs. This mixing of Greek and other civilizations like Egyptian and Persian would flourish for centuries in the Hellenistic world. The city of Alexandria exemplified this blending of cultures, housing people of many backgrounds and becoming a major center of learning and commerce.

1. The Legacy of Alexander
Social Studies for 9th E.G.B. | Teacher:
Mauricio Torres

2. Introduction
• Although Alexander’s empire soon crumbled, he had unleashed
changes that would ripple across the Mediterranean world and the
Middle East for centuries.
• His most lasting achievement was the spread of Greek culture.

3. Blending of Cultures
• All across his empire, Alexander
founded cities bearing his name. His
successors founded even more.
• Greek soldiers and traders soon began
to establish themselves in these lands
(From Egypt to India), they built Greek
temples, with Greek art and lived with
the same traditions as they had done in
Greece.
• Greeks settled, adopted local customs,
and locals adopted Greek customs.

4. Long Lasting Legacy
• The blending of Greek
civilization and those
of Egyptian, Persian
and Indian influence,
would flourish for
centuries.

5. Alexandria
• At the very heart of the Hellenistic world,
stood the city of Alexandria, Egypt.
• Located on the sea routes between Asia and
Europe its markets boasted a wide range of
goods.
• It was designed by an architect, it housed
almost a million people (Hebrews, Greeks,
Egyptians, Persians, etc).
• One of the most famous landmarks was the
Pharos, an enormous lighthouse standing up
almost 150 meters into the air.

6. Learning in Alexandria
• Alexander as well as his
successors encouraged the
work of scholars.
• They built the great Museum
(House of the Muses) which
included: laboratories, lecture
halls, a zoo and its world famous
library.

7. Hellenistic Civilization
• The cities of the Hellenistic
world employed armies of
architects and artists.
Temples, palaces and
other public buildings were
much larger and grander
than the buildings of
classical Greece.

8. New schools of thought: Stoicism
• News schools of thought arose, and
the most important was stoicism.
– Its founder, Zeno, urged people to
avoid desires and disappointments by
accepting calmly whatever life
brought.
– They preached high moral standards,
such as the idea of protecting the
rights of fellow humans (for them,
EVERYONE was equal).

9. Advances in Learning
• During this age, thinkers built on Greek,
Babylonian and Egyptian knowledge.
– Pythagoras derived his famous formula, Euclid
wrote the basis for Geometry.
– Using math, the astronomer Aristarchus
argued that the Earth rotated on its axis and
orbited around the sun (heliocentric solar
system theory).
– Eratosthenes showed that the Earth was
round and even calculated its circumference.
– Archimedes applied principles of physics to
make practical inventions.

10. Ask Yourself
• Analyze
– What was the legacy left by Alexander’s conquest?
– Why was it possible for many cultures to blend together?
• List
– What were some of the most important discoveries of the time?
• Recall
– What is stoicism?
• Describe
– What was the city of Alexandria like?
– In your own words, describe the term “Hellenistic Civilization”.

11. Bibliography
• Ellis, E. G., & Esler, A. (2009). World History. (P. Hall, Ed.)
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, US: Pearson Education
INC.
• Burstein, S. M., & Shek, R. (2012). World History (Teacher´s
Edition) (1st Edition ed.). (H. McDougal, Ed.) Orlando,
Florida, US.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing
Company.
• Images taken from Google.