At school, Sommer planned to specialize in sciences, but one day his history teacher showed pupils a map ... about Alexander but not Cyrus the Great, who founded the Achaemenid Empire in 550 ...

Alexander was born ... is now northern Iraq, in 331 BC. The young king of Macedonia, leader of the Greeks, overlord of Asia Minor and pharaoh of Egypt became 'great king' of Persia at the age ...