Alexander’s Route and Stein

Massaga to Ora

Abstract

Piecing together the past from the evidence of place names, found highly abraded by the gusty winds of time, is an exercise both risky and rewarding. Names may be changed and forgotten, and in unfamiliar hands may be mispronounced and misrecorded. But on the other hand popular names show in general a tendency to persist over longer periods of time than one can imagine and thus become source of light in areas where human memory has failed us altogether. And yet it is this evidence of place names that Sir Aurel Stein heavily depended upon for his delineation of Alexander’s route during his Indian campaign. Classical writers do mention the names localities stormed or visited by Alexander, but due to the lapse of a considerable stretch of time, it is difficult now to identify these sites. . . .