When Worlds Collide

The five moments in this challenge

1. 

   Round 1 · 326 BC

   Alexander Meets the War Elephants of Porus

   Jhelum River, Pakistan

   During a raging thunderstorm, Macedonian phalanxes crossed a swollen river to face an incredible wall of armored Indian war elephants, marking the bloody eastern limit of Alexander the Great's vast conquests.

2. 

   Round 2 · 1000

   The Vikings Drop Anchor in the Americas

   L'Anse aux Meadows, Canada

   Nearly five centuries before Christopher Columbus ever set sail, intrepid Norse explorers navigated treacherous icy waters to construct timber-and-peat longhouses on this windswept northern Newfoundland peninsula.

3. 

   Round 3 · 1532

   The Sudden Capture of the Sapa Inca

   Cajamarca, Peru

   Hidden within the walls of the grand plaza, a tiny band of Spanish conquistadors launched a devastating surprise ambush on Emperor Atahualpa's royal procession, effectively decapitating the mighty Inca Empire in a single afternoon.

4. 

   Round 4 · 1871

   A Famous Presumption on Lake Tanganyika

   Ujiji, Tanzania

   Beneath the shade of a sprawling mango tree in this bustling Swahili-Arab trading depot, Welsh journalist Henry Morton Stanley finally tracked down the long-missing Scottish missionary and explorer Doctor David Livingstone.

5. 

   Round 5 · 1945

   East Meets West at the Elbe River

   Torgau, Germany

   Crawling across the mangled steel of a destroyed bridge, advancing American infantrymen enthusiastically shook hands with Soviet vanguard troops, physically slicing the rapidly crumbling territory of Nazi Germany in half.