Athens and Jerusalem

When Alexander arrived at the Himalaya and his soldiers refused to go on, he founded a city:  Alexandria Eskhata  (Ἀλεξάνδρεια Ἐσχάτη), "Alexandria the Furthest". This city at the end of the world bordering the Tarim Basin desert (China) was such a success that in a  generation grew into a large Indo-Greek Empire that lasted 300 years. How could be so many Greeks in that god-forsaken place? 

The Persian kings applied the policy of transfer of troublesome peoples to faraway corners of their empire. We know that the Northern Kingdom of Israel was transferred to the interior of the Persian Empire and was "lost". Maybe they became Pashtuns. (BTW, there is an insidious individual who is trying to bring them - god-forbid - to Israel.) The population of Jerusalem was re-settled in the center of the empire and founded Talmudic academies and eventually became powerful officials in the Persian kingdom. They were given back the treasures of the Temple, permitted to return, and even convinced the Persian King to finance the reconstruction of Jerusalem. 

The Ionian Greek cities of what now is West Turkey were the wealthiest satrapies and also the most rebellious. The Great King used to depopulate en masse the more turbulent ones and settle them as far as possible: in the Fergana Valley, a beautiful and fertile borderland, exposed to the attacks of Sakha/Turkish/Mongol nomads. The Ionians not only guarded the frontier but when trained by Alexander's Macedonian military experts, they conquered Afghanistan and North India. While the Judean exiles conserved their identity (we are the witnesses), the Ionian Greeks disappeared just as our ten tribes. Although Kabul, Bagram, etc. were once rich and civilized Greek cities, nothing is left of their past.