As theories about the final resting place of Alexander the Great abound, it may be a good time to summarize what we know.
At that time, Alexandria was still under construction, and the
king’s mummy was temporarily deposed in
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 him. 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.
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
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
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.
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
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 were satisfactory.
Usually I don't comment since I'm a very VERY shy person (yes, even behind a screen), but since we are talking about Alexander's tomb, I wanted to share my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Mr. Chugg's theory is correct (that Venetians took the body and put it in Saint Mark Cathedral), because after paganism was banned, followers in Alexandria started to destroy temples and everything related to Egyptians or Greeks Gods; and if you know the story of Hypatia one can imagine what alexandrians could have done to Alexander's body. Even though he was dead and the founder of the city, he still was a pagan and an emblem of paganism and for pagans who venerated him.
Mr. Chugg suggests that the tomb of Alexander and the church of St. Mark in Egypt were the same and probably is true, but that doesn't mean that Alexander was still inside his sarcophagus when Venetians came; and by the way I guess people KNEW where the Soma was and KNEW that the tomb contained the body of the Macedon king, so why leave it untouched for basically more than 500 years until the Venetians showed up in 828 AD? That doesn't make sense if you consider that even the images of the Egyptians Gods weren't spared in these assaults.
And IF they accomplished to raze the tomb, why nobody recorded it?
I mean tearing down the temple of one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) of all men it's not a small detail. And when you consider that, in 390 AD the last one who recorded about the tomb was a pagan writer called Libanius, and that after 10 years, the bishop of the city asked were Alexander's tomb was (implying that it was already vanished), one can assume that it's hard to imagine that people wanted to confound the tomb of Alexander as the one of St. Mark (I mean too less time had passed). And also why they would?
So, considering all these factors, my guess is the body of Alexander is out there, somewhere.
And this took me to start to think another thing: there should have been priests and men who guarded the Soma, I don't think that those men seeing how things were ending up in Alexandria didn't do nothing to save the body of the son of Zeus-Amon, even out of respect for the founder of the city. So I guess they took the body and put it somewhere else (who knows is in the Valley of the Kings or in Siwa, where he wanted – at least, accoarding to sources, be buried).
The worst case scenario is Alexander is gone, like they took his body and throw it away, which is something that I don't want to consider, first, because it would be a barbaric act toward a dead man and second, I want to believe that someone dared to take the body and put it somewhere safe, not because he was the son of Amon but for the importance he had for his achievements and as the founder of the city – I mean, if it weren't for him there wouldn't be any Alexandria in Egypt.
And let's not forget that Egyptians warmly welcomed Alexander as he was perceived as the saviour from the Persian grasp, so it's difficult to think that they just took his body and burn it; if they did it, of course.
Anyway, sorry for the long essay and for the grammar mistakes that I could have made, but English is not my first language and I hope that I made myself clear enough.
R.
Dear R., brave Alexander defender!,
DeleteDon’t you worry, you clearly made your point and I fully understood what you said and meant to say. You defended Alexander’s case with the fervor of a true attorney. He would be proud of you!
You are so right THAT THE BODY OF ALEXANDER IS OUT THERE, SOMEWHERE. Of course, it is – well, in my mind it is and apparently also in yours. Thank you!
Alexander had admirers while he laid in state inside the Soma of Alexandria, but as you say so rightfully, nobody would have dared throwing his royal bones to the vultures. The unwritten rules of sacrilege as we know them today, existed far back in antiquity. Burial sites were sacred (look at the Egyptians for a leading example) – always.
It remains puzzling to say the least that so little information about the Soma of Alexandria (including the Palace, the Library, etc) and the tomb of Alexander has been recorded. If it was ever fully described, which surely was the case, isn’t it remarkable that no information at all has reached us? History suddenly goes silent after 400 AD or so. Why? and How?
You know as well as I do, that there are more question marks surrounding Alexander. How did he die, is a crucial one! We are still guessing about the grave sites of Alexander IV (not sure he is in the Vergina Tomb), young Heracles, Olympias, Roxane or Barsine. What happened to the remains of Hephaistion, which Alexander must have kept with him? Well, we don’t even know where Cleopatra has been buried!
Hopefully, time will tell – hopefully, yes :)
Thank you once again for sharing your thoughts and comments. I don’t receive many, meaning that I appreciate them even more!
Hello, it's me again, R.
DeleteThank you for having time to reply to my comment! That was my first comment ever; as I said, very shy... Hope you don't mind that I reply you back.
Anyway, you're right: Egyptians took great care of their deads, and when you consider that Alexander was crowned pharaoh and was the son of Amon (at least they believed that), the care was major. And let's not forget that Egyptians believed in the afterlife and the soul in order to keep living in the underworld needed its physical body, so, as you said, no one would have dared to dirty their hands with such sacrilege and so Alexander is somewhere, safe.
I want to believe that rather than the worst case scenario. I mean, Alexander was too great to be forgotten or disposed as "nobody important"!
About the description of the tomb surely there were written records about it and probably they were stored in the Library, but, as you know, the Library suffered many fires during centuries and many books were purposely burnt; probably the description of the tomb was in one of those scrolls.
Concerning the resting place of Alexander's son, Roxane and the others you've mention above, well I guess they weren't lucky enough to have people who were devoted to them; furthermore Macedonians saw Roxane and Barsine as "barbarians", and even though Alexander IV had the king's blood in his veins, they saw him as a Persian and not a Macedonian; so they can have been disposed in the worst way possible. People of that time were ruthless, so it might be possible.
And Hephaistion, well probably his remains are still in Babylon, who knows...
Alexander and Hephaistion shared the same fate, somehow: they vanished from this Earth without leaving a trace behind.
And last, we wonder what was the cause of Alexander's premature death. Well... I don't think he was poisoned and even though Olympia claimed that his son was murdered, I believe those were assumptions, simply because they didn't have the same knowledge that we have today about diseases.
In my opinion, even if he didn't fell ill, Alexander would have died sooner rather than later; he was always in the front in battlefields showing courage to his soldiers (quality that I truly admire in him), and he never fully recover or rest enough from injuries, so he would be probably die, if not in 323 B.C., in 322-321 B.C.
I can't see him growing older and older and then sat comfortably on his throne like a medieval ruler would do, and I think it's something that he too never wanted in the first place since he was a warrior in the core...
You're right when you say that we have more questions than answers about Alexander, and the fact that he's so shroudded in mistery makes us want to go deep and deeper, but eventually we won't never find every answers to our questions.
P.S. Sorry again for the long essay (my comment was even longer, but I decided to cut a bit) but I can stay hours talking about Alexander!
R.
Hello!
DeleteIt’s great to read your detailed comments and thoughts! Yes, like you, I could go on for hours talking about Alexander!
I’m not sure whether you want to stick to these comment forms on my blog, especially since we are drifting away from the title of the present post. Would you consider talking to me directly by email? The link is on my blog page. It is absolutely fine with me if you want to remain anonymous. If you have a gmail address, you could create a separate account calling yourself whatever your want.
Please let me know what you’ll decide. Thank you!
Hello again,
ReplyDeleteI gladly accept and no, there's no need for me stay anonymous anymore. Just tell me when I can send you the e-mail.
R.
P.S. thank you for giving me this opportunity!
ReplyDeletePlease scroll down the right column of my blog below the books and the picture albums,till you find my picture. Clicking on the picture will lead you to my email address.
DeleteHello all, i don't know why the historians are so lost and looking for his tomb in Egypt, India everywhere around the world even looking on the moon but constantly seems to forget about one place and that's the holy place the birth place of Alexander himself which is Macedonia of course. It was sacred for Macedonians and still it is to this very day to be buried in the land of their ancestors in the land where they were born. The body of Alexandar was taken by his mother and transported in high secrecy with the help of one of his generals and buried in Macedonia. Next to his Tomb there is another smaller tomb probably belonging to his wife Roxana and his son i don't think it's his mother tomb because like we all know his mother Olimpia was stoned to death in Pydna and her killing was approved by non other than Cassander who was one of the Alexandar most powerful generals and his closest "friend" who is also said to have denied to her body the rites of burial. Cassander also turned mad for power after Alexandar died same like the rest of his 4 most powerful generals we all know they divided the Macedonian kingdom between themselves so they can play kings and that's why it didn't last long. The Macedonian people seems to know where is the exact location of his Tomb ( it's one of the very few places untouched since the ancient times by the archaeological criminals who excavate and operate under the radar without any permission from the state and who are selling the Macedonian heritage around the world to private collectors sometimes even to the Museums directly). Maybe even the Macedonian government knows but public excavations is not possible yet because of the tensions Macedonia has with Greece... if anyone is interested i can give you the coordinates on google earth so you can check the place for yourselves. The place is astronomical in size it's bigger than the newly discovered Tomb Kasta Hill in Amphipolis Macedonia or should i say in Greece because it's a Greek territory in the last 110 years after Macedonia was partitioned in 1913 in Bucharest Romania and Macedonian territory was divided and given to Greece 61% or the south Aegean part of Macedonia, Bulgaria get the eastern part of Pirin Macedonia and Albania took the smallest western part of the Macedonia territory all of them has to bring back the territory because the deal was valid for a 100 years only and it's expired in 2013 that's why we can see these days very strong opposition from all of the neighboring countries involved they are blocking Macedonia and the Macedonian people in every way possible like changing the name of their country, they can't call themselves Macedonians bla bla... i went in to the forbidden territory and wild waters so i'm out... thank you
ReplyDeleteNO Cassander was NOT "one of the Alexander's most powerful generals"; he never was a general at all!
DeleteNO, Cassander NEVER was Alexander's "closest friend"; he was never part of his inner circle.
If you do (write) something stupid, do it with enthusiasm.