Alexander at the Caspian Gates

I uploaded another chapter of my unpublished book, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East". This extract is taken from Unit IV, Mapping Marvels and Monsters: In the Shadow of the Iron Gate. The unit treats the popular medieval myth of Alexander's Gate. This is a resume of the chapter:

The myth of the Caspian Gates was modeled on Alexander the Macedon's pursuit of his rival, the Persian emperor. Due to the patchy awareness of Asian geography, the initiators of the legend switched the locality from the Iranian Caspian Gates to the Caucasus. The Hellenistic ideal of the civilized world carved by a Macedonian military genius needed to be defended from barbarian incursions by an impenetrable barrier.

You can view this extract at 

https://www.academia.edu/43202485/Alexander_at_the_Caspian_Gates

as well as the previous chapter https://www.academia.edu/42876161/Meet_your_enemy

As far as my second book project, I have resumed searching for a literary agent who can represent my book before a traditional publisher. 

With my third project, the quest for the maritime route to India, I continue collecting material for a new chapter about the trans-Saharan trade. The Russian literary magazine has published my article titled (in English), Beyond the Pillars of Hercules. You can view it at

https://www.academia.edu/42166248/Beyond_the_Pillars_of_Hercules

This is the second article published in Russian after How Wide Spans the Ocean Sea.

https://www.academia.edu/41214506/How_Wide_Spans_the_Ocean_Sea

I am also reviewing my first project, "Dawn and Sunset: A Tale of the Oldest Cities in the Near East". I would like to glean from new sources that  were unavailable to me while writing my first book. Meanwhile, I am studying the Late Chalcolithic period in Greater Mesopotamia, the era of the emergence of social inequality and the rise of proto-states to the north of the alluvial plain.