My name is Milbry Polk. Since I was young, I loved reading stories about people who lived long ago. I was fascinated by their clothes, their houses, their jewelry, their legends. How they lived their lives was so very different than anything I knew. Rarely, however, did these stories tell about individual lives.
There was one person who lived a long time ago whom we do know a great deal about, and his story fascinated me. He was Alexander the Great! Alexander lived more than 2,500 years ago. When he was about 20 years old, he left his Greek homeland at the head of a large army. His goal was to conquer the world as he knew it. And he did! He went all the way to India. All along his route, to this day, there are many towns and cities named Alexandria after him.
When I was growing up my family lived in Egypt, which is a wonderful land full of ancient history. Alexander had also conquered Egypt, so I decided that when I was old enough I would follow his trail the way that he did 2,500 years ago--on camelback--across the trackless sands of the Western Desert. I wanted to see if, all these years later, I could find any trace of his amazing journey.
When I was 23, I set out on my mission. For two months I walked across the deserts with my camels.
