After 150 years of searching, historians appear to have finally discovered the exact location of the famous Battle of the Granicus, the first major engagement in which Alexander the Great managed to defeat the Persians after landing in Asia Minor, which would lead to his ultimate defeat of Darius and the conquest of the entire Persian Empire.
‘We have identified the route and the ancient location of (Alexander’s) camp that have been sought for 150 years. We have found the route that Alexander used to reach the site of the Battle of the Granicus,’ said the well-known Turkish historian Reyhan Körpe during a meeting of experts that took place in Çanakkale last December.
‘This battle took place near a river formerly known as the Granicus, about 100 km east of present-day Çanakkale, in the heart of the Biga plain,’ explained Körpe, who for the past 20 years has been conducting field studies in and around the Biga district to locate the site of the historic battle, which took place 2,400 years ago.
‘This was Alexander’s most important battle, because after this victory, he was able to continue the conquest of western Anatolia and the whole of Asia Minor, later reaching as far as India itself. His success in this battle was important not only for Alexander the Great, but also marked one of the most important turning points in world history,’ said the professor, recalling that it was the first of the successive defeats suffered by the Persians at the hands of the Macedonians that led to the end of their empire.
‘We started studying the Granicus battlefield some 20 years ago, and for the last 3 years we have been focusing on identifying the precise location of the battle; this year we have made important discoveries: the most important of these has been to identify the routes Alexander used to reach the battlefield, and where he camped along the way,’ explained Körpe.
How the site of one of the great battles of Antiquity was discovered.
Körpe said that by carefully reading and interpreting the ancient sources, his team was able to pinpoint the approximate location of the battle site, the nearby villages, and the exact position within the plain. According to him, Alexander ‘began his campaign in the plain of the village of Özbek, from there he moved eastward across Umurbey and Lapseki, crossed the mountains, and descended to the Plain of Biga where he reached the Granicus River’.
Körpe’s team was able to identify in the area the ruins of the ancient city of Hermaion, which according to ancient texts was the last place where Alexander camped before the battle. From there, historians conducted geomorphological tests to discover what the landscape of the area looked like more than 2,000 years ago, determining that the course of the Granicus River (now called Biga Çayı, ‘Biga Stream’) has changed very little since then.
With that task completed, Körpe and his team turned again to the ancient scriptures, which mention that the Macedonian king positioned his mercenaries on a nearby hill for battle; the team then discovered that, on a nearby hill, local farmers had some time ago uncovered several tombs filled with weapons that could date back to the time of Alexander the Great.
What’s more, in 2024, local residents also found bones buried at the site, which experts determined belonged to adult males. From these bones, historians determined that thee place was a burial site prepared after a great battle: ‘The absence of typical grave markers or other objects suggests that this was not a official cemetery,’ Körpe said.
Turkish authorities are now working to promote the site of the Battle of Granicus inside and outside Turkey, making it known as a tourist destination through the creation of the so-called Alexander the Great Cultural Route, which will seek to follow the footsteps of the Macedonian conqueror in modern Türkiye: from his landing in Asia Minor at the head of more than 20,000 soldiers, to his encounter with the Persian army a few weeks later, on the banks of the Granicus River.
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As a history lover, Pablo Gómez was captivated by Turkey from the first day he visited it in 2006: he got married there, has a house there… and has since become an expert on Turkey’s current affairs. With a long experience in media, he has been at the helm of hispanatolia.com since 2011.
