On 12 February 2007, a meeting of the Club of Hermitage Friends took place in the State Hermitage for the opening of the main exhibition of the year - Alexander the Great. The Road to the East. The meeting was scheduled as part of the Club's 10th anniversary season.

In keeping with tradition, members of the Club of Hermitage Friends were the first to see the new exhibition.

Director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky greeted the Friends. Director of the Department of the Ancient World A.A. Trofimova explained the exhibition concept to the Friends: the key idea is to show not merely the personality of Alexander the Great but also the transformations brought about by the age of Alexander. The basic theme of the exhibition is Alexander's travels and particularly his campaign in the East, with all its consequences both for the Orient and for the West.

Staff of the Research and Educational Department then took the Friends through the exhibition and told them about the exhibit items on display, which span the period beginning in the 5th century B.C. to the end of the 19th century.

Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage

Anna Trofimova, exhibition's curator

At the exhibition