In mid-winter 328-327, the Macedonian army moved north-east from its base in Bactria to stamp out the last resistance in Sogdiana. The march was horrific; in the dead of winter with winter storms, men (and camp followers) froze to death; however the army largely made it through to the Koh-i-noor Mountains, near modern Hissar, where they found a fortress known variously as "the rock of Sogdiana." This site would showcase one of Alexander's most impressive and whimsical conquests.

Soldiers With Wings Bessus, who had assumed the rank of Great King before his capture and death, left many rebellious nobles in what is now the mountains of Afghanistan into Turjikistan. One of Bessus' nobles, Oxyartes, had sought refuge on the a citadel rock with his family and soldiers, confident that no army on earth could take his position.

"He [Alexander] found, on a near approach, that it rose sheer on every side against attack. The natives had provisioned it for a long siege, and deep snow on its summit caused the double disadvantage of making the ascent more awkward for the Macedonians and of ensuring the defenders an unlimited supply of water. None the less, Alexander determined on assault. In point of fact the reason for his detrtermination was something the natives had said, an offensive bit of bragging which made him angry and put him on his mettle. He had called on them to discuss terms, and offered to allow them to return unmolested to their homes on condition of surrendering the stronghold; but their answer to the offer was a shout of laughter. Then in their barbaric lingo, they told Alexander to find soldiers with wings to capture the Rock for him, as no other sort of person would cause them the lease anxiety."

Scholars have long debated the precise site of the Rock, but it remains unknown. What is clear is that it rose high, with sheer cliffs on all four sides; Alexander, characteristically, decided to perform the impossible. He called for volunteers throughout his army experienced in mountain-climbing, with a Midas prize of twelve talents for the first man to ascend the Rock; the resulting 300 volunteers had to scale the worst of the snowy cliffs in the dark. While Alexander spent a sleepless night on the ground, 300 men ascended in silence and sleet, by rope, axe and tent-peg. Over 30 fell to their deaths through the long night. As dawn made it possible to see the summit of the Rock, the remaining mountaineers appeared, waving the pre-arranged flags in signal of their success. Alexander immediately sent heralds to the Rock's defenders; straight-faced, he announced that he had, indeed, found soldiers with wings. Either foreseeing more reinforcements or simply appalled by the inexplicable, Oxyartes and the entire Rock surrendered at once. Alexander promptly enrolled many of the barons in his own forces.

With his army and captives in tow, Alexander now performed another miracle of mountain combat. A second great rock fortress, known as the Rock of Chorienes or the Rock of Sisimithres after the leader who sheltered there with his people, was allegededly in a range of mountains near the Sogdian Rock. Arrian describes it as "12,000 feet high and about seven miles in circumference, rose sheer on every side; there was only one way up, by a narrow and difficult track hewn out of the rock-face...the fortress was further defended all round by a steep ravine..." (IV. 21). Not only to take the rock, but to take it with siege equipment, was Alexander's decision. With some casting about, a native was found who was willing to lead the army up the ridge that ran behind the citadel. A giant ravine lay between Alexander's army and the defenders. Alexander simply ordered his engineers to bridge the ravine, with supports strong enough to roll in his catapults and other siege engines:

"First, they climbed down the cliffs on laders and drove stakes into the rock-faces at the ravine's narrower point; then hurdles of willow-wood were laid on the network and surfaced with a thick layer of earth as a level road for the army and their weaponry. 'At first, the barbarians kept ridiculing th attempt as utterly hopeless,' but like the people of Tyre, they soon began to see what a son of Zeus could do to the landscape. The bridge across the ravine was finished and arrows, perhaps from catapults, began to shoot into their lairs; their own shots in reply bounced idly off the Macedonian sheds and screens." Fox, Alexander the Great, 316.

The baron Oxyartes, Alexander's guest-hostage, was sent to negotiate with Sisimithres; the two men shouted unpleasant truths across the ravine. With bitter personal experience, Oxyartes told Sisimithres that there was nothing Alexander's army could not do. Sisimithres agreed and surrendered the citadel; Alexander confirmed him in possession of his rock, and the hungry army found two years' worth of provisions stockpiled there.

With the surrender of the Rock of Sismithres, the pacification of Bactria and Sogdiana came to a hopeful end (although Alexander would have frequent trouble with this part of his empire and its constant intrigues and rebellions). But there was one more "rock" in his military future.

The Rock of Pir-Sar, identified
in the 20th century by Sir Laurel Stein as
the probable Rock of Aornus.

The Rock of Aornus

While en route to India in late winter/early spring, 326, in the region in the border of the Himalayas known as Swat, Alexander's army tackled one last impossible rock. Known as the Rock of Aornus, it now sheltered refugees who had fled from Alexander's earlier, successful sieges as he moved towards the Punjab. The citadel, atop an extensive plateau, towered 8,000 feet above the great Indus river and was fed by fresh water springs. Amid constant clashes with Indian troops, Alexander's army moved tons of earth and constructed another causeway of tree trunks from the surrounding hills; finally the army was able to formally attack the inhabitants on the Aornus plateau. Alexander's army had, once again, bridged an impossibly deep ravine with a bridge strong enough to carry siege equipment. Those on the Rock, with their deep citadels and months of provisions, had considered a siege, but never an army and artillery attack in force from the ridge behind them. After bitter fighting, they quickly surrendered.

Alexander promptly put the whole region under a satrap, Nicanor, and placed the Indian Sisicottus in charge of the Rock of Aornus Legend told a story that this vast, difficult citadel had defeated Herakles' efforts to conquer it: Alexander could smile, having now out-Heraklesed Herakles.