The tomb of Alexander the Great is mentioned in many historical records, but its exact location is still unknown. After Alexander died in Babylon, his body was first buried in Memphis by his general, Ptolemy I Soter. Later, it was moved to Alexandria, Egypt, where it was buried again.
In ancient times, important figures such as the Roman general Julius Caesar, Queen Cleopatra, and Emperor Augustus are known to have visited Alexander's tomb in Alexandria. What happened to the tomb afterward is unclear, but it may have been destroyed by the 4th or 5th centuries. Since the 19th century, more than 100 official searches have been made to find the tomb's location in Alexandria.
Background
According to Quintus Curtius Rufus and Justin, Alexander the Great asked to be buried in the temple of Zeus Ammon at Siwa Oasis shortly before his death. Alexander wanted to be seen as the son of Zeus Ammon and did not wish to be buried with his real father in Aegae. His body was placed in a coffin made of "hammered gold," as described by Diodorus, which fit his body perfectly. Strabo and Curtius Rufus also mentioned the coffin. Later, between 89–90 BC, the golden coffin was melted down and replaced with one made of glass or crystal.
The location of Alexander’s body became a topic of discussion among Perdiccas, Ptolemy I Soter, and Seleucus I Nicator. Alexander’s wish to be buried in Siwa was not followed. In 321 BC, while returning to Macedonia, the funeral procession carrying his body was stolen by Ptolemy I Soter in Syria. Around 322 or 321 BC, Ptolemy moved the body to Egypt, where it was buried in Memphis, the center of Alexander’s rule in Egypt. While Ptolemy held Alexander’s body, Perdiccas and Eumenes controlled his armor, diadem, and royal scepter.
Plutarch, who visited Alexandria, wrote that Python of Catana and Seleucus asked an oracle at a serapeum if Alexander’s body should be moved to Alexandria. The oracle answered yes. In the late 4th or early 3rd century BC, Alexander’s body was moved from Memphis to Alexandria for reburial, as recorded by Pausanias, who credited Ptolemy Philadelphus with this action around 280 BC. Later, Ptolemy Philopator placed Alexander’s body in Alexandria’s communal mausoleum. Strabo called this mausoleum the "Soma," from the Greek word sōma, meaning "body." Modern historians also refer to it as the "Sema," from the Greek sēma, meaning "grave sign or marker," due to the similarity of the words. By 274 BC, Alexander was already buried in Alexandria. His tomb became the center of the Ptolemaic religious worship of Alexander the Great.
Historical attestations
According to Pausanias and the Parian Chronicle records from 321–320 BC, Ptolemy first buried Alexander in Memphis. Later, during the early Ptolemaic dynasty in the late 4th or early 3rd century BC, Alexander’s body was moved to Alexandria, where it was buried again.
In 61 BC, during Pompey the Great’s Triumph, Appian wrote that "Pompey himself was carried in a chariot covered with gems and wore, it is said, the cloak of Alexander the Great, if anyone can believe that. It seems to have been found among the belongings of Mithridates, which the people of Kos had received from Cleopatra III of Egypt."
In 48 BC, Caesar visited Alexander’s tomb in Alexandria. To fund her war against Octavian, Cleopatra VII took gold from the tomb. After Cleopatra’s death, Augustus visited the resting place and placed flowers on the tomb and a golden diadem on Alexander’s head. According to Suetonius, Caligula later partially looted the tomb, removing Alexander’s breastplate. In 199 AD, Septimius Severus sealed the tomb during his visit to Alexandria. Later, in 215 AD, Caracalla moved some items from the tomb. According to John of Antioch, Caracalla took his own tunic, ring, belt, and other valuable items and placed them on the coffin.
When John Chrysostom visited Alexandria in 400 AD, he asked to see Alexander’s tomb and said, "his tomb even his own people know not." Around the same time, Cyril of Alexandria noted that the tomb was opened by Emperor Theodosius I and looted. Later writers, such as Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam (born 803), Al-Masudi (born 896), and Leo the African (born 1494), reported seeing Alexander’s tomb. Leo the African, who visited Alexandria as a young man, wrote: "In the ruins of Alexandria, there remains a small building, like a chapel, notable for a tomb believed to hold Alexander the Great’s body. Many travelers from distant lands visit to honor the tomb and often leave gifts." George Sandys, who visited Alexandria in 1610, was shown a sepulchre claimed to be Alexander’s resting place, though it likely repeats descriptions from earlier sources.
Present location
The Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities has officially acknowledged more than 140 attempts to find Alexander the Great's tomb. Mahmoud el-Falaki (1815–1885), who created a map of ancient Alexandria, believed the tomb is located at the center of Alexandria, where the Via Canopica (now Horreya Avenue) crosses the ancient street labeled R5. Later, other scholars, including Tasos Neroutsos, Heinrich Kiepert, and Ernst von Sieglin, also suggested the tomb is in the same area. In 1850, Ambroise Schilizzi claimed to have found what he believed was Alexander's mummy and tomb inside the Nabi Daniel Mosque in Alexandria. In 1879, a stone worker accidentally broke through a vaulted chamber in the mosque's basement. Some granite monuments with pointed tops were found there, but the entrance was later sealed, and the worker was told not to share the discovery. Images on Roman lamps in the National Museum of Poznań, the British Museum, and the Hermitage Museum are thought by some scholars to show Alexandria with a building called the Soma Mausoleum, which has a pyramid-shaped roof. In 1888, Heinrich Schliemann tried to locate Alexander's tomb in the Nabi Daniel Mosque but was not allowed to dig.
In 1993, Triantafyllos Papazois proposed that the royal tomb II at Vergina, Greece, does not contain Philip II of Macedon but instead holds Alexander the Great and his wife, Roxanne, while his son, Alexander IV, is buried in tomb III. Based on historical records, he concluded that the armor found in tomb II, including a breastplate, shield, helmet, and sword, belongs to Alexander the Great.
In 1995, Greek archaeologist Liana Souvaltzi claimed she identified a tomb in Siwa as Alexander's. However, George Thomas, then general secretary of the Greek Ministry of Culture, questioned this claim, stating the structure might not be a tomb. Thomas and his team noted the style of the site did not match Macedonian designs, and the tablet fragments did not support Souvaltzi's translations.
According to one legend, Alexander's body is buried in a hidden chamber beneath an early Christian church.
In a 2011 episode of the National Geographic Channel series Mystery Files, Andrew Chugg suggested that Alexander's body was moved to become Saint Mark the Evangelist's remains, and his tomb was turned into a church in 392 AD to protect them and convert them to Christianity. In 828 AD, Venetian merchants stole the remains from Alexandria, Egypt, believing them to be Saint Mark's, after a church was destroyed for building materials. The remains were taken to Venice, where they are now venerated in St. Mark's Basilica. In a 2020 article in the Egyptology journal Kmt, Chugg showed that a 3rd-century BC tomb fragment found in St. Mark's Basilica in 1960 matches part of the Sarcophagus of Nectanebo II, long believed to be Alexander's tomb in Alexandria.
In 2014, a large tomb from Alexander's time was discovered in Amphipolis, Greece. Some believe it was built for Alexander but was not used because Ptolemy I Soter took the funeral procession. The excavation team said the tomb was a memorial for Alexander's friend, Hephaestion.
In 2019, a marble statue claimed to be Alexander was found by Calliope Limneos-Papakosta, a Greek archaeologist, in the Shallalat Gardens, which are in the ancient royal quarter of Alexandria. In 2021, Egyptian officials announced they had found Alexander's tomb in Siwa Oasis, near the Libyan border. In 2023, Limneos-Papakosta discovered a small statue.
In 2024, Egyptologist Christian de Vartavan published a book titled Locating the Tomb and Body of Alexander the Great, in which he proposed that Alexander's body may have been placed in the Eastern desert of Egypt to protect it from being destroyed.