Across The Hindu Kush - 1996

Across the Hindu Kush
Episode 3
In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great

Michael Wood treks over the Khawak pass, crosses the Oxus river and follows the golden road to Samarkand whilst tracing Alexander the Great's footsteps.

Micheal Wood embarks on a 20,000 mile journey in the footsteps of Alexander's triumphal march from Greece to India. Meeting traders, pilgrims and guerillas he interweaves history with the present day.

In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great was a BBC documentary television series first shown during 1998. It was written and presented by British historian and broadcaster Michael Wood.

Wood retraced the travels of Alexander the Great, from Vergina in Macedonia, where his father Philip II of Macedon died and Alexander was proclaimed king, through seventeen present-day countries to the borders of India and back to Mesopotamia, where he died. Whereas most of Wood's documentary series had titles beginning "In Search of...", the title of this series reflected a slightly different approach.

The series was directed by David Wallace.

in 335 BC Alexander of Macedonia set off on an expedition to conqueror the world. The voyage of Alexander the Great covered more than 22;000 miles in ten years; from Greece to India and back; through some of the most difficult and unforgiving terrain.
In 1996; more than 2000 years later; Michael Wood was hot on his trail; following; as closely as possible; in the footsteps of Alexander and the army that he drove to achieve the impossible.He did have the advantages of modern transport. Up to a point. Travelling by jeep; bus; truck; train; retired Russian ambulance and occasional lifts in helicopters; he discovered that some parts of the world are still completely inaccessible to anything but the feet of camels; mules; horses or occasionally humans.Leaving countless baffled border checkpoint guards in their wake; the crew travelled through 16 countries. They crossed post-Gulf War Iraq and entered Afghanistan during the rise of the Taleban. They crossed the Great Sea of Sand; the Great Salt Desert and the Desert of Death and climbed some of the highest mountain passes in the world.