This is an IHeart podcast.

Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosity's, A production of IHeart Radio and grim and mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosity's.

Alexander the Great is known for his military conquests,

but if you think he was just a great warrior,

you're missing the forest for the trees,

because Alexander's greatest talent was in his ability as a strategist and an engineer.

And this was never more true than in 32 BC when Alexander laid siege to the island of Tyre.

Tire was an island nation near the modern-day border between Israel and Lebanon.

It was heavily fortified on all sides, with walls that went right up to the shore.

Alexander arrived from the north after conquering several coastal cities belonging to the Persian Empire. He wanted to push east

and confront the Persian king, Darius, but he didn't want to leave the Persians with access to

the Mediterranean. Tire had to fall. Alexander was highly educated, having been taught by none other than the philosopher Aristotle.

So while other conquerors had previously looked upon Tyre and saw an unconquerable fortress,

Alexander simply saw it as a difficult problem to solve.

The king and his advisors studied the landscape and realized that there were large stone ruins on the mainland left over from the original ancient incarnation of Tyre.

They also noticed that there was a natural land bridge leading from the land to the island, with only a few feet of water washing over it.

Alexander put two and two together and immediately started construction

of a causeway using the stones from the old city. Once the causeway construction reached out about

75% of the way to the city, the builders encountered a problem. The water suddenly got much deeper,

...