Admittedly, he was pretty great at a couple of things (conquering, for example) and the stories tell us that he was a loyal kind of dude and an excellent leader. Unfortunately, he wasn't really creative when it came to naming things.
Over the period of his unfortunately short life he founded something like 20 cities. He named them all Alexandria (or variations thereon). All of them.
It is said that Alexander solved the Gordian Knot. The history of the knot goes something like this:
When the Phrygians were without a king on of their oracles had a vision. The vision said that the next man to come into the city of Telmissus with an ox-cart would be king. The dude with the ox-cart was a farmer by the name of Gordias. Gordias's son was Midas (there's a name you should vaguely recognize from year 8 history) and he dedicated the ox-cart his father had been carrying to a god (Sabazios) and either tied it to a post with a really complicated knot. *
So Alexander comes along, can't figure it out and come up with what we now know as the Alexandrian Solution... which was to cut it in half with his sword. Knot: 0 Alexander: 1.
Happy Birthday Alexander III The Great!
* other versions of the story say that it was Midas who became king, or that Gordias tied the knot. There is no way of knowing. What we do know is that a knot was tied, it is associated with Midas, it was named The Gordian Knot and it was cut by Alexander The Great.
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