The Greek engineer who connected 600 ships to make a bridge

BUILDING A BRIDGE OF 600 SHIPS!!!

Mandrocles: The ancient Greek engineer who built a bridge across the Bosphorus connecting six hundred ships.

Mandrocles (6th century BC) was an ancient Greek engineer from Samos.

He built a bridge over the Bosphorus, at the request of the Persian King Darius I who was on a campaign to conquer Thrace.

About 513 BC Darius I decided to subdue the Scythians and launched the first Persian campaign against European lands. Darius took with him a body of soldiers from Aeolian, Ionian and Hellespontian cities.

The Persians obliged the tyrant Aiacus of Samos to take part in Darius’ campaign against the Scythians, contributing a fleet, like all the other Persian-occupied Greek cities. But in this campaign of very large dimensions, the abilities of the Samians stood out once again: their technological genius, their ingenuity, the knowledge of the sea that they had worked on for centuries.

Darius had to lead the countless Persian army from Asia to Europe. Army and cavalry reached the narrowest point of the Bosphorus but how would the Strait be bridged?

Darius had to lead the countless Persian army from Asia to Europe. Army and cavalry reached the narrowest point of the Bosphorus but how would the Strait be bridged?

The Samian engineer Mandrokles undertook the project. He, connecting six hundred ships together in two rows, built a floating and wide bridge over which, according to Herodotus, 700,000 footmen and horsemen passed.

Leonidas of Sparta Original