Latest / The Achaemenid Empire: Persia's Golden Age of Power — Fexingo History
Xerxes' Bridge of Boats: Engineering the Hellespont Crossing
In 480 BCE, the Persian king Xerxes I ordered one of the most audacious engineering feats of antiquity: a bridge of boats across the Hellespont, the narrow strait separating Asia from Europe. This episode tells the story of that massive pontoon bridge, built by Phoenician and Egyptian engineers to carry Xerxes' enormous invasion force into Greece. We explore the logistics of anchoring hundreds of ships, laying flax and papyrus cables, and creating a stable roadway for thousands of soldiers and cavalry. But when a storm destroyed the first attempt, Xerxes famously ordered the strait itself to…
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