According to Oxford historian Robin Lane Fox, this trip represented the "strangest strand in Alexander's life and legend" ( Alexander the Great, 201). In 331 BCE, after successfully reaching Egypt and "liberating" its people from Persian rule, Alexander and a small group of followers embarked on his own desert excursion to speak to the famous oracle. It was widely believed by that time that the Greek mythological hero Heracles (and probably Perseus) had made a pilgrimage there to consult Zeus Ammon. Alexander, a student of the lives of the mythological heroes, knew these stories. This Oracle of Ammon was located in the Siwah Oasis - a 50-mile stretch of trees and vegetation found deep in the northern Sahara desert. Siwah had first become an important sacred site in the Mediterranean world in the 7th century BCE, three centuries before Alexander's time. This connection allowed them to forecast the future, which was an ability in especially high demand among the great royals and warriors of the day. This hybrid god called Zeus-Ammon had an oracle who was located deep in the Libyan desert, a few hundred miles west of Memphis, the Egyptian capital city. The oracles of antiquity were prophets believed to possess a unique connection to the gods. A god could take on different forms depending on the place and circumstances. By Alexander's time, Zeus-Ammon was a well-known deity in Greece - basically a hybrid of these two chief gods.
Unlike many religions, the religion of ancient Greece was capable of incorporating foreign deities into their belief system. Amun, called "Ammon" in Greece, was the parallel "king of the gods" in the religion of ancient Egypt. Zeus was considered the ruler of the Olympian gods in ancient Greece and Macedon. This article will use the ancient evidence and modern analysis to try and separate the truth from the myth. Alexander's relationship with the ancient deity known as Zeus-Ammon is one of the great mysteries of his life.
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