The Spread of Hellenistic Culture

The spread of Hellenistic culture was the subject of today's lesson. Like the previous lesson on Alexander and Macedonia, this one was written out on the board. Hellenistic culture is th blend of Greek culture with Persian, Egyptian, and Indian cultures. Hellenistic culture was present in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. In the city of Alexandria, which is named after Alexander the Great, there was the body of Alexander himself but today we know that this is not his body after all. The Greeks were very fond of science and technology. Aristarchus was an astronomer who found out that the Sun is approximately three hundred times larger than the Earth. However, Ptolemy disagreed with Aristarchus and said that the Earth is the center of the universe. This would go on to be taught for the next fourteen-hundred years showing that science is not always correct. Eratosthenes estimated that the circumference of the Earth is approximately twenty eight to twenty nine-thousand miles. This estimate was very close considering the actual estimate of the circumference of Earth is twenty five-thousand miles.

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