P. Biagi - Uneasy Riders: With Alexander and Nearchus from Pattala to Rhambakia

The scope of this paper is to interpret the road followed by Alexander and Nearchus on their way back to Babylon from the Indus delta to the country of the fi sh-eaters (Gedrosia). To achieve this goal both classical sources and personal fi eldwork experience in Lower Sindh and Las Bela province of Balochistan were taken into consideration. Given the absence of archaeological fi nds attributable to the Hellenistic period, the unreliability of most of the classical chronicles that were written centuries after the death of Alexander, the landscape changes that aff ected the aforementioned territories during the last two millennia, and the controversial results obtained by fi eldwork by British offi cers and geographers during the period of their conquest of the region, our data on the Macedonian retreat from the country is very poor. Nevertheless, just a few topics can be reinterpreted on the basis of the fi eld evidence acquired during the last 10 years. They regard the way, and the speed Nearchus moved from the mouth of the Indus to Las Bela, and a few data regarding the way Alexander crossed the Hab river, and probably camped along the shores of present-day Lake Siranda.