Lord of Two Lands by Judith Tarr

[jan]

I have finished reading Lord of Two Lands, and have a question about Alexander's trip to Siwa. There is a problem about the method of travel. She goes to lengths discussing the horses and the camels which participated in the caravan. I read that camels were not used then and that Alexander traveled by foot. Can anyone enlighten me further on that problem? Thanks.Jan

[beausefaless]

No problem, Alexander was in shape I wouldn't be surprised if he traveled sixty miles a day or better by foot.Through North West Montana Bob Marshall did sixty miles a day through Topography ranges from rugged, precipitous ridge tops to gently sloping alpine meadows and forested river bottoms. Wildlife includes wolverine, deer, elk, moose, grizzly bear, black bear, mountain goat, mountain sheep and mountain lion and he used tennis shoes and carried a sixty lb. pack! Over a thousand miles Bob straddled the Continental Divide with elevations ranging from 4,000 feet along the valley floors to more than 9,000 feet at mountain summits. Just a thought.

[marcus]

Hi Janet,I can't remember whether it's in Arrian or one of the other sources, but one of them explicitly states that they used camels.It's well worth referring to "ATG and the Logistics of the MAcedonian Army" by Don Engels. He puts forward a very convincing argument for them to have used camels exclusively, and no horses (all to do with the amount of water the horses would have needed - even with camels they needed at least 1 watering hole to replenish their supplies).All the bestMarcus

[Bill Giannakos]

Dear janet,
you must remember that they used only horses because he was lucky.it was raining all the way to siwa and the didn't use the camels.But they had camels.As you know Kamvisis the persian emperor tried to do the same before Alexander and died with other 50000 soldiers.

[marcus]

Except it *didn't* rain all the way to Siwa. The rain didn't come until they had run out of water and were in dire straits.All the bestMarcus

[jan]

Thanks for the info. The sandstorm and rainstorm are described fully in the fictional piece. Tarr is usually interesting, but I found her lacking in this book as I did not like some of her assumptions.Weigall says there were no camels introduced in Egypt then, but I accept Marcus's statement by historical references.

[marcus]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Jan.I understand (from a book I was skimming through in a shop a little while ago) that there is no record of camels in Egypt until the late Hellenistic or early Roman period. (If I recall correctly, there has been only one representation of a camel from the entire Pharaonic period, and that was a small child's toy.)However, something that people tend to forget is that Siwa was not in Egypt, it was in 'Libya'; and Alexander departed for Siwa from Paraitonion, which also was not in Egypt, technically speaking. So I don't think the two facts are irreconcilable :-)All the bestMarcus

[beausefaless]

There are two chief kinds of camels: (1) the Arabian camel, also called dromedary, which has one hump, and (2) the Bactrian camel, which has two humps plus shorter legs. A pack camel can carry 330lbs or more and travel 25 miles in one day. Horses do not get along with camels!! The best pack mules and horses will do 14 miles try and push it without rest a smart horse will lay down letting you know it's time for a rest. A hiker can travel much greater distance in a day with only a short period of rest. If Alexander put a time period on his travel to and from Siwa there's not doubt in my mind he made journey by foot.

[marcus]

Hi Andrew,Good info there! In addition, what I found interesting when talking to a camel driver in Egypt (as one does ) was when he said "If I were going into the desert for a long journey, I'd far rather take a horse. Camels are really difficult." (Or words to that effect - his English wasn't *that* good).The problem is, of course, that camels are just far more suited to long desert treks than horses.All the bestMarcus