Endless fuss over the tomb of Alexander the Great

As theories about the final resting place of Alexander the Great abound, it may be a good time to summarize what we know. 

After being embalmed in Babylon, Alexander’s mummified body was transported with due pomp to Pella, where he was born and where all Macedonian kings were traditionally buried. However, Ptolemy, now ruling over Egypt, decided to intercept the splendid coffin as it passed through Syria. He said that Alexander had wanted to be buried in Egypt, in his first city of Alexandria. 

At that time, Alexandria was still under construction, and the king’s mummy was temporarily deposited in Memphis, the hitherto capital of Egypt. Ptolemy eventually transferred Alexander’s remains to Alexandria. Ancient sources are almost silent about the size and location of this first tomb. 

Ptolemy IV Philopator built a grand mausoleum for Alexander around 215-214 BC, probably as imagined by his great-grandfather, Ptolemy I. This Philopator transferred Alexander’s mummy during a splendidly organized ceremony. With Philopator’s lineage of predecessors, Alexander was put to rest somewhere in the center of Alexandria, later called the Soma, i.e., within the Palace District. 

At some point, the mummy was protected by a glass surrounding it. That is how Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, saw it. His example was followed by at least Caesar (assassinated in 41 BC), Caligula (ruled 12-41 AD), Hadrian (ruled 117-138 AD), Septimius Severus (ruled 193-211 AD), and Caracalla (ruled 198-217 AD), who were all great admirers of Alexander. After 391 AD, when paganism was entirely outlawed, history lost track of the mummy after being on display for almost seven centuries. 

Strangely, no picture and no full description of Alexander’s last resting place has survived – not even of the Soma and/or Royal Palace. However, we do have coins and mosaics representing the Pharos built by Ptolemy I. One would logically assume that the Soma was far more important than the lighthouse. It remains everyone’s guess why we don’t have any description of the Soma and its location inside Alexandria? 

Northern Africa suffered severely from a devastating earthquake in 365 AD, causing the entire coastline to drop by four meters (see: Apollonia in Cyrenaica (eastern Libya) after Alexander). The consequences of the ensuing tsunami may not have flooded the Soma immediately, and it may have sunk slowly till it disappeared around 391 AD, as mentioned above. The tomb of Alexander obviously drowned together with the Palace of the Ptolemies. 

The big question is, what happened to the remains of Alexander, supposing they could be saved, either from the flooding or from unrest inside Egypt? Theories are endless. 

The analysis made by Andrew Chugg centered around the Mosque of Nabi Daniel, which would have hidden Alexander’s corpse in a sarcophagus way beneath the present street level. Chugg claims that these remains were taken to Venice in 828 AD as being those of St Mark. They are now in St Mark’s Cathedral (see: The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great by Andrew Chugg). 

Greek archaeologist Liana Souvaltzi assumed that at some point, the king’s mummy was transferred to Siwah as Ptolemy fulfilled Alexander’s wish. The recorded visits of the Roman emperors to Alexandria, for instance, are merely ignored in her theory. Liana Souvaltzi started excavating the Temple of Amon-Ra in Siwah in 1989, but in 1995, the Greek and Egyptian governments suddenly blocked her permit. Today, she still fights to resume her excavations; however, without success. 

When the Kasta Hill tomb in Amphipolis was discovered a few years ago, one of the many supposed occupants was Alexander the Great (see: Amphipolis/Kasta Hill … here we go again!) Here is the list of possible candidates: 

Roxane, Alexander IV, the son of Alexander, Olympias, Cleopatra, sister of Alexander, Cassander (son of Antipater), Antigonus Monophthalmus, Hephaistion, Heracles (the illegitimate son of Alexander and Barsine), Polyandrion, Polyperchon, Philip-Arrhidaeus (half-brother of Alexander), Philip II (Alexander’s father, as many still doubt that he lies in the tumulus of Aegae).

The most recent theory here is that it was supposed to be the last resting place for Hephaistion. 

More news came from the Hellenic Institute for the Research of Alexandria Culture in 2017 (see: Magnificent Alexander statue found in Alexandria). They are working in the Shalallat Gardens area, where they claim to have located remains from the Royal Quarters of the Ptolemies. More exciting is the discovery of a unique marble statue of Alexander the Great in these gardens, fueling new theories about the king’s tomb once again.

Earlier this year, while discussing the presumed Tomb of Queen Olympias near Pydna (see: The tomb of Olympias found?), the leading Professor claimed that this tomb was similar to the one attributed to Alexander at Siwah.  

In the end, there have been many more theories, as I am not including those expressed in the widespread versions of the Alexander Romance (see: Le Roman d’Alexandre, traduit du grec par A Tallet-Bonvalot). None of them was satisfactory.