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 one of his generals, 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 not known, and 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 shortly before his death to be buried in the temple of Zeus Ammon at Siwa Oasis. Alexander wanted to be called and seen as the son of Zeus Ammon, so he did not want to be buried next to his real father in Aegae. According to Diodorus, Alexander’s body was placed in a coffin made of "hammered gold," which fit his body perfectly. Strabo and Curtius Rufus also mention this coffin. Later, between 89–90 BC, the golden coffin was melted down and replaced with one made of glass or crystal.

There were discussions among Perdiccas, Ptolemy I Soter, and Seleucus I Nicator about who would control Alexander’s body.

Alexander’s wish to be buried in Siwa was not followed. In 321 BC, while Alexander’s body was being taken back to Macedonia, it was stolen in Syria by Ptolemy I Soter, one of Alexander’s generals. Around late 322 or early 321 BC, Ptolemy moved the body to Egypt, where it was buried in Memphis, the center of Alexander’s rule in Egypt. While Ptolemy had Alexander’s body, Perdiccas and Eumenes controlled Alexander’s armor, crown, and royal scepter.

Plutarch, who visited Alexandria, wrote that Python of Catana and Seleucus were sent to a serapeum to ask an oracle if Alexander’s body should be moved to Alexandria. The oracle said yes. In the late 4th or early 3rd century BC, Alexander’s body was moved from the tomb in Memphis to Alexandria for reburial. According to Pausanias, this was done by Ptolemy Philadelphus around 280 BC. Later, Ptolemy Philopator placed Alexander’s body in Alexandria’s communal mausoleum. Strabo wrote that the mausoleum was called the Soma, from the Greek word σῶμα, meaning "body." Modern historians also refer to it as the Sema, from the Greek σῆμα, meaning "grave sign or marker," because of the similarity in 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 the Great in Memphis. Later, during the early Ptolemaic period in the late 4th or early 3rd century BC, Alexander’s body was moved to Alexandria, where it was reburied.

In 61 BC, during Pompey the Great’s Triumph, Appian wrote that Pompey traveled in a chariot decorated with gems and wore a cloak said to belong to Alexander the Great. This cloak was reportedly found among the belongings of Mithridates, which the people of Kos had received from Cleopatra III of Egypt.

In 48 BC, Julius Caesar visited Alexander’s tomb in Alexandria. Later, Cleopatra VII took gold from the tomb to fund her war against Octavian. After Cleopatra’s death, Augustus visited the tomb, placed flowers on it, and put a golden diadem on Alexander’s head. Suetonius recorded that Caligula partially looted the tomb, removing Alexander’s breastplate. In 199 AD, Emperor Septimius Severus sealed the tomb during his visit to Alexandria. In 215 AD, Emperor Caracalla relocated some items from the tomb. According to John of Antioch, Caracalla removed his own tunic, ring, belt, and other valuable items and placed them on Alexander’s coffin.

In 400 AD, John Chrysostom visited Alexandria and remarked, “his tomb even his own people know not.” Around the same time, Cyril of Alexandria noted that Emperor Theodosius I ordered the tomb to be opened and looted. Later writers, including Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam, Al-Masudi, and Leo the African, claimed they saw Alexander’s tomb. Leo the African, who visited Alexandria as a young man, described a small chapel-like building in the ruins of Alexandria, where people believed Alexander’s body was preserved. He noted that many travelers visited the tomb and left gifts. In 1610, George Sandys was shown a sepulchre in Alexandria, which was said to be Alexander’s resting place, though it may have been a copy of earlier descriptions.

Present location

The Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities has officially recorded 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. Other scholars, including Tasos Neroutsos, Heinrich Kiepert, and Ernst von Sieglin, also suggested the tomb is in this area. In 1850, Ambroise Schilizzi claimed to have found a mummy and tomb believed to be Alexander’s inside the Nabi Daniel Mosque in Alexandria. Later, in 1879, a stone worker accidentally broke through a vaulted chamber in the mosque’s basement. Some granite monuments with pointed tops were noticed there, but the entrance was later sealed, and the worker was told not to talk about the discovery. Images on Roman lamps in the National Museum of Poznań, the British Museum, and the Hermitage Museum are sometimes interpreted as showing Alexandria with a building that has a pyramid-shaped roof, possibly the Soma Mausoleum. In 1888, Heinrich Schliemann tried to find 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, contains Alexander the Great and his wife, Roxanne, not Philip II of Macedon as previously thought. He also claimed that items like a breastplate, shield, helmet, and sword found in tomb II belong to Alexander’s armor. In 1995, Greek archaeologist Liana Souvaltzi said she identified a tomb in Siwa as Alexander’s. However, George Thomas, then general secretary of the Greek Ministry of Culture, questioned her claim, stating the structure might not be a tomb and its style did not match Macedonian designs. The fragments of tablets shown to Thomas did not support Souvaltzi’s translations as proof.

One legend says 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 rebranded as Saint Mark the Evangelist, and his tomb was turned into a church in 392 AD to protect the remains and convert them to Christianity. In 828 AD, Venetian merchants stole the remains from Alexandria, Egypt, believing them to be Saint Mark’s, after the Caliph Al-Ma'mun ordered the church’s demolition. The remains were taken to Venice and placed 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 a tomb casing from the Sarcophagus of Nectanebo II in the British Museum, which was once venerated in Alexandria as Alexander’s tomb.

In 2014, a large tomb from Alexander’s time was discovered in Amphipolis, Greece. Some believed 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 in the Shallalat Gardens in Alexandria by archaeologist Calliope Limneos-Papakosta. In 2021, Egyptian officials said they 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 suggesting Alexander’s body may have been moved to the Eastern desert of Egypt to protect it from destruction.