New funding for the Tomb of Kasta Hill near Amphipolis

The Greek finances remain a doubtful and uncertain subject but it is now official: 2.5 million Euros will be made available for restoration works at Kasta Hill, better known as the Tomb of Amphipolis.

By now, the entire world is aware of this tomb were it only because of the many speculations that were fired into the media, especially in 2014 (click on the link Amphipolis to refresh your memory).

[Picture from The Greek Reporter]

Since then, the wildest speculations have circulated about who would or could be buried in that tomb. The most fantastic suggestion was that it would be Alexander the Great in person simply based on the size of this tomb and the expensive construction. In the meantime, this theory has been luckily dismissed because of the number of historical records confirming that Alexander was buried in Alexandria in Egypt where his body was seen by many visitors for several hundreds of years. What a relief!

The fact remains that this tomb must have been built by a wealthy Macedonian nobleman or some member of the royal family after Alexander. Yet the theory linking this tomb to Hephaistion, Alexander’s closest friend, still survives because of the inscription ΠΑΡΕΛΑΒΟΝ that was deciphered next to the monogram of Hephaistion. History, however, has documented that Hephaistion’s funeral was held in Babylon at high expenses in the presence of Alexander, but that leaves the question as to what happened to his ashes.

By now, we know for certain that the Tomb of Amphipolis is a Macedonian tomb dating from the last quarter of the 4^th century BC. It is far larger than the one ascribed to Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great, in Vergina. Excavations at Amphipolis have exposed the remains of five people, i.e. those of a woman of about 60 years old, two men aged 35-45, a newborn infant and a few fragments of a fifth person. These skeletal remains are presently undergoing DNA-examinations to cross-link them or to establish a relationship with skeletons found in the neighboring tombs.