Statue of Alexander the Great installed in Athens on Wednesday

A statue of Alexander the Great which was installed in Athens on Wednesday. The statue, sculpted by Yiannis Pappas, was acquired by the Ministry of Culture in 1993 and donated to the Municipality of Athens. However, it had been withdrawn from the public space in the Greek capital. The statue, which shows the Macedonian King on horseback, was installed opposite the statue of Lord Byron, on the special base that had already been placed at the site. Deputy mayor of Athens, Giorgos Apostolopoulos attended the installation ceremony.

Alexander III of Macedon (356 BC – 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great was a king of the ancient Hellenic kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty. He spent most of his ruling years on an unprecedented military campaign through Asia and northeast Africa, and by the age of thirty he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to northwestern India. Alexander's settlement of Hellenic colonists and the resulting spread of Hellenic culture in the east resulted in a new Hellenistic civilization, aspects of which were still evident in the traditions of the Byzantine Empire in the mid-15th century AD and the presence of Greek speakers in central and far eastern Anatolia until the 1920s. Alexander became legendary as a classical hero in the mold of Achilles, and he features prominently in the history and mythic traditions of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. He became the measure against which military leaders compared themselves, and military academies throughout the world still teach his tactics. He is often ranked among the most influential people in history.

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