He died in Babylon. He was thirty-two. The world stopped.
Then, the body of Alexander the Great became the most valuable piece of luggage in the ancient world. It wasn't just a corpse; it was a political nuclear weapon. Whoever held the King held the right to rule his fractured empire. While the funeral carriage was supposedly headed toward Macedonia, Ptolemy I Soter—Alexander’s general and the future pharaoh of Egypt—basically hijacked the caravan. He took the body to Memphis, and later, it ended up in Alexandria.
For centuries, the tomb of Alexander the Great was the most famous landmark on the planet. Emperors visited it. Julius Caesar wept there. Augustus reportedly broke the mummy's nose by accident while trying to kiss it. Caligula supposedly stole the breastplate. And then, around the 4th century AD, the most visited site in the Roman world just... vanished. It's gone.
Honestly, it’s the ultimate archaeological cold case.
The Three Burials of a God
Alexander didn't just have one grave. He had three. First, there was Memphis. Ptolemy kept him there while a massive, gold-covered mausoleum was being prepped in the new city of Alexandria. This second location was known as the Sema or Soma (Greek for "body"). By the time Ptolemy IV came around, he decided to consolidate all the royal tombs into one giant complex. That was the third and final known resting place.
Think about the scale here. We aren't talking about a simple hole in the ground. Ancient accounts describe a massive district in the center of Alexandria, filled with temples and groves. It was the heart of the city.
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But Alexandria is a nightmare for archaeologists. It's a "living" city, meaning the ancient ruins are buried under twenty feet of modern concrete, tangled in sewage lines, and submerged by the Mediterranean Sea. Because the Nile Delta is sinking—a process called subsidence—a huge chunk of the royal quarter is now underwater.
Why We Can't Find It
Most people think "hidden tomb" and imagine a secret map or a booby-trapped cave. It’s usually more boring than that. It’s usually just mud and earthquakes.
In 365 AD, a massive tsunami hit Alexandria. It leveled the coastline. Combine that with the rise of Christianity, which saw the cult of Alexander as pagan idolatry, and you have a recipe for erasure. The tomb might have been stripped for its gold, converted into a church, or simply swallowed by the rising tides.
There are some wild theories out there, though. One of the most persistent—and controversial—comes from researcher Andrew Chugg. He suggests that when the Christians were looking for the body of St. Mark to protect it from Islamic invaders, they might have grabbed Alexander’s mummy by mistake. Or on purpose. If Chugg is right, the tomb of Alexander the Great isn't in Egypt at all. It’s sitting under the high altar of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, disguised as a Christian saint.
Most mainstream academics think that’s a stretch. But hey, in a world where we find King Richard III under a parking lot, nothing is truly off the table.
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The Siwa Oasis and the Callimanopoulos Factor
Then you have the "traditionalists" who look toward the desert. Alexander famously visited the Oracle of Amun at Siwa Oasis. He supposedly asked to be buried there. In the 1990s, Greek archaeologist Liana Souvaltzi claimed she found the tomb at Siwa. She pointed to lion statues and Greek inscriptions that looked promising.
The Greek and Egyptian governments eventually pulled her permit. The site, according to many experts, was a later Roman temple, not the royal Macedonian tomb. It caused a massive diplomatic spat. It just goes to show how high the stakes are. Finding this tomb would be the biggest archaeological discovery in human history—bigger than Tutankhamun.
Where the Search Stands Today
If you want to see the current "hot zone," look at the Shallalat Gardens in Alexandria. Calliope Limneos-Papakosta has been digging there for over 20 years. She’s found Hellenistic foundations, a massive statue of Alexander, and a Roman road. She hasn't found the "Big One" yet, but she’s closer than almost anyone else in the last century.
Her work is grueling. They use pump systems to keep the groundwater out. They dig through layers of Islamic, Roman, and Ptolemaic history. It’s like trying to find a specific needle in a haystack that is currently being rained on.
What the tomb probably looks like
Based on the tombs we found in Vergina (the burial site of Alexander’s father, Philip II), we can guess a few things:
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- A barrel-vaulted roof: A classic Macedonian architectural flex.
- Doric or Ionic columns: The facade would have looked like a Greek temple.
- High-end frescoes: Scenes of hunting or battle.
- A stone sarcophagus: Though the original was gold, it was likely replaced with glass or alabaster after a later Ptolemy melted the gold down for "emergency funds" (currency crises happened in 89 BC, too).
The Most Likely Destinations for Travelers
You can't walk into the tomb today, but you can see the places where the mystery lives.
- The Alexandria National Museum: They have pieces of the "Royal Quarter" that have been pulled from the harbor.
- The Istanbul Archaeology Museum: This is home to the "Alexander Sarcophagus." Ironically, it’s not actually his tomb—it belonged to Abdalonymus, a king of Sidon—but it features the best contemporary carvings of Alexander in existence.
- The Royal Tombs at Vergina: If you want to see what a Macedonian royal burial actually looks like, go to Northern Greece. The tomb of Philip II is intact and gives you the exact "vibe" of what Alexander’s grave would have looked like before it was looted.
What Most People Get Wrong
There's this idea that the tomb is "lost" in the sense that no one knows where it was. That’s not true. We know exactly where it was in the year 200 AD. We have maps of the ancient city. The problem is that the city changed. Street names changed. The coastline moved.
Also, don't buy into the "curse" stuff. Alexander wasn't an Egyptian Pharaoh in the traditional sense; he was a Macedonian King who took the title of Pharaoh. His burial was a mix of Greek hero-worship and Egyptian royal ritual.
Actionable Steps for the History Obsessed
If you’re serious about following this discovery, don't just wait for a CNN headline. The real work happens in academic journals and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) reports.
- Track the Hellenic Research Institute of Alexandrian Civilization (HRIAC): This is Papakosta’s team. They are the most active boots-on-the-ground researchers in the Shallalat Gardens.
- Use Digital Mapping: Check out the "Oxford Map of Ancient Alexandria." It overlays the ancient city with the modern one. You can literally walk the streets of Alexandria with your phone and see where the Soma likely stood (it’s near the intersection of the two main ancient roads, the Canopic Way and the R1 street).
- Look at the underwater surveys: The European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), led by Franck Goddio, is constantly mapping the submerged portions of the royal palace. If the tomb slid into the ocean during the 365 AD earthquake, Goddio is the one who will find it.
- Visit the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa: While not Alexander's tomb, these are nearby and show the weird, beautiful blend of Egyptian and Greek death rituals from the same era. It helps you visualize the world Alexander left behind.
The tomb of Alexander the Great isn't just a box with a mummy in it. It’s the final piece of a puzzle that spans three continents. It represents the moment the East and West first truly slammed into each other. Until it's found, the Hellenistic age isn't really over. It’s just waiting.