How was Alexander's army physically able to travel so far in just 8 years?

by Chanchumaetrius

After 8 years the army was over 5,000 kilometres (I think?) from Greece, and that's not even taking into account that they had snaked down into Egypt before heading back up to head further East. How was moving a huge army like this over such distance so quickly even logistically possible? Boats? Horses?

Agrippa911

I would recommend Engel's Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army. He goes into considerable detail about how much supplies the army needed and march rates. In short it is doable but requires organization and planning.

One thing to keep in mind is that this kind of marching is not impossible or that difficult (the movement part, not meaning his conquests). Armies at this time often marched everywhere, from Xerxes marching an army (probably in the hundreds of thousands) from the east into Greece (and back) to Roman legions redeploying from the western theatre to the eastern.