Alexander’s biographer Plutarch of Chaeronea states that Alexander the Great founded no less than seventy towns, which were important centers of the Greek cultures in the East. By these foundations, the sage of Chaeronea implies, the Macedonian conqueror changed the nature of his oriental subjects from barbarians into civilized people.

List of cities founded by Alexander the Great:

Alexander the Great founded, substantially re-established, or renamed numerous towns and cities.

Below are some of these cities (with present-day locations):

Modern Bulgaria

• Alexandropolis Maedica

Modern Turkey

• Alexandria Troas, modern Dalyan

• Alexandria by the Latmus, possibly Alinda

• Alexandria near Issus; İskenderun preserves the name, but probably not the exact site.

• Smyrna. According to the legend, after Alexander hunted on the Mount Pagus, he slept under a plane tree at the sanctuary of Nemesis. While he was sleeping, the goddess appeared and told him to found a city there and move into it the Smyrnaeans from the “old” city. The Smyrnaeans sent ambassadors to the oracle at Clarus to ask about this, and after the response from the oracle they decided to move to the “new” Smyrna

Modern Syria

• Nikephorion, present day Raqqa. Isidore of Charax, in the Parthian Stations, wrote that it was a Greek city founded by Alexander the Great.

Modern Jordan

• Jerash, some sources claim that the city was founded by Alexander or soldiers of Alexander.

• Other cities in the region also claimed Alexander as their founder.

Modern Egypt

• Alexandria

Modern Iraq

• Iskandariya, Iraq.

• Alexandria in Susiana, later Charax Spasinu

• Alexandria of Mygdonia, probably in the area of Erbil

Modern Iran

• Alexandria Asiana, possibly Eskandari-ye Baraftab and Nesar-e Eskandari

• Alexandria Carmania, near Soghan Rural District

• Alexandria Susia or Alexandropolis, modern Mashhad

Modern Tajikistan

• Alexandria Eschate, at or close to modern Khujand

Modern Uzbekistan

• Six cities north of the Oxus, one of which may be Termez

Modern Turkmenistan

• Alexandria in Margiana, formerly Merv

Modern Afghanistan

• Alexandria Ariana, now Herat

• Alexandria Prophthasia, perhaps Farah, Afghanistan

• Alexandria Arachosia, now Kandahar

• Alexandria in the Caucasus, now Bagram

• Alexandria on the Oxus or Alexandria Oxiana, probably Ai-Khanoum

• Alexandria in Opiania, Ghazni

• Nikaia or Nicaea, at or near Jalalabad

Modern Pakistan

• Arigaeum, modern Nawagai, Bajaur

• Nicaea, somewhere in modern Punjab

• Alexandria Bucephalous (Bucephala), somewhere in modern Punjab. Maybe Phalia or Gujrat, Pakistan or Jalalpur Sharif.

• Alexandria on the Indus, possibly Uch, and another town on the Indus.

• Patala, unknown, possibly near Hyderabad, Sindh

• Xylinepolis, unknown, possibly near Hyderabad, Sindh

• Alexandria in Orietai near Rhambacia, possibly Bela, Pakistan.

• Alexandria, possibly near modern Multan.

• Alexandria, founded beside the old Indian town of Patala at the mouth of the Indus river at Regio Patalis.

Modern India

• Alexandria on the Hyphasis; In Punjab, India on the western bank of the Beas (Hyphasis) river.

REFERENCES

1. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 7.5

2. Isidoros of Charax, Parthian Stations, § 1.2

3. Périple de Marcien d’Héraclée, Épitome d’Artemidore, Isidore de Charax, etc., ou, Supplément aux dernières éditions des Petits géographes, p.248

4. Getzel Cohen (2006). The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa. University of California Press. p. 250. doi:10.1525/california/9780520241480.001.0001. ISBN 9780520241480.

5. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, ALEXANDRIAN FOUNDATIONS Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Soviet Central Asia, India

6. Pliny, Nat. 6.29