Alexandria Arachosia

Alexandria Arachosia
Ἀλεξάνδρεια Ἀραχωσίας
Cities founded by Alexander the Great; Alexandria Arachosia is located center left.
Alexandria Arachosia is located in Afghanistan
Alexandria Arachosia
Location of Alexandria Arachosia
LocationAfghanistan
RegionKandahar Province
Coordinates31°36′08″N 65°39′32″E / 31.60222°N 65.65889°E / 31.60222; 65.65889
TypeSettlement
Part ofCities founded by Alexander the Great
History
Founded330–329 BC

Alexandria in Arachosia (Greek: Ἀλεξάνδρεια Ἀραχωσίας) also known as Alexandropolis (Ἀλεξανδρόπολις)[1] was a city in ancient times that is now called Kandahar in Afghanistan. It was one of more than twenty cities founded or renamed by Alexander the Great. It was founded around 330 BC, on the foundations of an earlier Achaemenid fortress.[2] Arachosia is the Greek name of an ancient province of the Achaemenid, Seleucid and Parthian empires. The province of Arachosia was centered around the Argandab valley in Kandahar. It did not reach the Hindu Kush, but it apparently extended east as far as the Indus River, although its exact extents are not yet clear.[3]

  1. ^ Stillwell, Richard; MacDonald, William L.; McAllister, Marian Holland, eds. (1976). "Alexandrian foundations". The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press.
  2. ^ Adkins, Lesley (2004). Empires of the Plain: Henry Rawlinson and the Lost Languages of Babylon. Macmillan. p. 111. ISBN 0-312-33002-2.
  3. ^ Schmitt 1986.