Alexander the Great conquered vast amounts of territory and came to rule a greater empire than had ever existed up that time. Along the way he chased the reviled Persians out of Egypt and was welcomed as pharaoh. He stayed in the country for just a few months and never returned, dying a few years later in Babylon. But his body was brought to Egypt for burial by his eventual successor, the general Ptolemy, no doubt in a suitably grand monument. Classical authors tell of visits by Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Hadrian and others, but the tomb (or tombs…) has never been located. Where was it, and could it yet be found? I regularly give lectures online like this one, on a variety of themes connected with Egypt and the ancient world. For more info or to register for the next one please go to https://chrisnaunton.com/online-lectures/ Hope to see you at the next talk!

1. ALEXANDER
THE GREAT
Buried three times in Egypt...
But where are those tombs?
Dr Chris Naunton
@chrisnaunton
chrisnaunton.com/online-lectures/

2. Alexander the Great
BM GR1872.5-15.1
© The Trustees of the British Museum

3. Alexander III of Macedon
Born 356 BCE
Son of Philip II of the
Argead Dynasty
(founders of the kingdom)
Succeeded his father as King
at age 20 in 336

5. Chronological Background
What’s going on in the
Near East?

6. By Martin, Richard A. (Richard Arthur) - This file has been extracted from another file: Image from page 45 of "Ancient seals
of the Near East" (1940).jpg, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87522069
‘Zvenigorodsky
Seal’
(Hermitage, St
Petersburg).
Battle of
Pelusium(?),
525 BCE

8. Darius I, Persepolis
BM 118844
© The Trustees of the
British Museum

9. Darius I
IntrywS
Mallawi
Museum

11. Nectanebo II (30th Dyn)
"Ochus possessed Egypt, when he
had driven Nectanebô into
Ethiopia: thereby the kingship of
the Egyptians was destroyed. So far
Manetho [or, Here ends the History
of Manetho]".
Epitome of Eusebius as preserved
in Jerome (4th – 5th cen. CE)
Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon. Image via Wikimedia Commons

13. Macedon = small kingdom
Greece dominated by Athens,
Sparta and Thebes
Came to dominate in reign of
Philip II
Defeated Athens and Thebes
at the battle of Chaeronea in
338
 ‘The League of Corinth’ or
‘Hellenic League’

14. Battle of the
Granicus, May
334
Defeats Darius
at Issus, 333
 control of
southern Asia
Minor
Captured Tyre
– Jan to July
332

15. Towns en route to Egypt
capitulate but Gaza resists
Arrives in Egypt later in 332
BCE
Leaves the following year in
331 BCE

16. Egypt 332-1
BCE
Pelusium
Heliopolis
Memphis
Alexandria
Marsa Matruh
Siwa

17. Pharaoh of Egypt
Alexander (L) and Amun

18. The King of Upper and Lower Egypt
Lord of the Two Lands
Setepenra-Meryamun
The Son of Ra, Lord of Arisings
Alexandros

19. Defeats Darius at Guagamela 331 BCE
Darius Ecbatana,
Alexander Babylon
then Persepolis  looted

20. Alexander chases Darius into Media and
Parthia.
Darius is murdered by his Satrap in Bactria
= the fall of the Achaemenid Empire

21. Following his
Indian campaign,
Alexander
returned to
Babylon
Died in the
palace of
Nebuchadnezzar
II in 323 BCE
aged 32.

22. Diadochi – ‘The successors’
Included….
Ptolemy
General in Alexander’s army
Rode at the emperor’s side
through Asia and shared his
perilous journey across the
Egyptian desert to the Siwa Oasis
Perdiccas
Royal bodyguard, marshal &
Grand Vizier after Hephaestion.
Official protector of Alexander’s
wife Roxanne and their son
(Alexander).
Regent to co-sovereigns Philip III
Arrhidaeus, and the newborn
Alexander

23. Late 321 BCE (two years after Alexander’s death), the catafalque is ready…

24. Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book I, Chapter VI:
“Upon the death of Alexander, he [Ptolemy] it was who resisted
those who wished to give the dominions of Alexander to
Aridaeus the son of Philip, and he again was responsible for the
different nationalities being divided into kingdoms. And he
himself crossed into Egypt and slew Cleomenes, whom Alexander
had made satrap of Egypt, thinking him friendly to Perdiccas, and
therefore not loyal to himself, and persuaded those of the
Macedonians who were appointed to carry the dd body of
Alexander to Aegae to hand it over to him, and buried him at
Memphis with the customary Macedonian rites;”

25. Quintus Curtius, Historiae Alexandri Magni: echoes
Pseudo-Callisthenes’ statement that Alexander’s body was
taken first to Memphis and transferred a few years later to
Alexandria.

26. There is in Babylon an oracle of the Babylonian Zeus....The god’s oracle
was as follows:...‘There is a city in Egypt named Memphis; let him
[Alexander] be enthroned there.’ No one spoke against the oracle’s
pronouncement. They gave Ptolemy the task of transporting the
embalmed body to Memphis in a lead coffin. So Ptolemy placed the
body on a wagon and began the journey from Babylon to Egypt. When
the people of Memphis heard he was coming, they came out to meet
the body of Alexander and escorted it to Memphis. But the chief priest
of the temple in Memphis said, ‘Do not bury him here but in the city
he founded in Rhacotis [Alexandria]. Wherever his body rests, that city
will be constantly troubled and shaken with wars and battles.
Stoneman, Richard. The Greek Alexander Romance (Classics) (Kindle
Location 2651). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

27. Step Pyramid,
Saqqara

28. Egypt 332-1
BCE
Pelusium
Heliopolis
Memphis
Alexandria
Marsa Matruh
Siwa

29. Saqqara

30. ©EES

31. The Serapeum, Saqqara

33. Alexander the Great

36. From Lauer & Picard,
Les Statues ptolémaïques
du Sarapieion de Memphis
(Paris, 1955)

37. Image from
Lauer, P,
Saqqara: The
Royal Cemetery
of Memphis:
Excavations and
Discoveries
since 1850
(London, 1976)

38. ‘phoenix’
Peacock?
Egyptian
Museum, CG
27507
Image from Lauer, P, Saqqara: The Royal Cemetery of Memphis:
Excavations and Discoveries since 1850 (London, 1976)

39. 317 Philip III Arrhidaeus (A’s half brother) is murdered by
Olympias
316 Olympias (mother) stoned to death the next year on orders of
Cassander ( King of Macedon)
309 Roxanne (wife) and Alexander IV (son) murdered
308 Cleopatra (sister) murdered on orders of Antigonus
By this time Ptolemy controlled Egypt
Seleucus - Babylon
Cassander - Macedonia

40. In 305 Ptolemy had
himself crowned Pharaoh
Ptolemy I Soter (‘saviour’)
Reigned 305/4 – 282 BCE
BM EA1641
© The Trustees of the
British Museum

41. “He [Ptolemy] decided for the present not to send it
[the body] to Ammon, but to entomb it in the city that
had been founded by Alexander himself, which lacked
little of being the most renowned city of the inhabited
earth. There he prepared a sacred enclosure worthy of
the glory of Alexander in size and construction.”
Diodorus siculus, The Library of History Book XVIII, 28.

42. “the body of Alexander was carried off by Ptolemy and
given sepulture in Alexandria, where it still now lies — not,
however, in the same sarcophagus as before, for the
present one is made of glass”
Strabo, Geography, Book XVII, 8

43. “the city contains most beautiful public precincts
and also the royal palaces, which constitute one-
fourth or even one-third of the whole circuit of the
city; for just as each of the kings, from love of
splendour, was wont to add some adornment to the
public monuments, so also he would invest himself
at his own expense with a residence, in addition to
those already built, so that now, to quote the words
of the poet, ‘there is building upon building’
Strabo, Geography, Book XVII, 8

44. “The Sema also, as it is called, is a part of the royal
palaces. This was the enclosure which contained the
burial-places of the kings and that of Alexander”
Strabo, Geography, Book XVII, 8

45. "Ptolemy (Philopator) built in the middle of the city a
mnema, which is now called the Sema, and he laid there
all his forefathers together with his mother, and also
Alexander the Macedonian."
Zenobius

46. Ptolemy IV Philopator
Reigned 221 – 204 BCE
Image via Wikimedia Commons

47. “…in eager haste he went down into
the grotto hewn out for a tomb . There
lies the mad son of Philip of Pella.” …
“the dead Ptolemies and their
unworthy dynasty are covered by
indignant pyramids and mausoleums.”
Pharsalia on Julius Caesar’s visit to
Alexandria
Julius Caesar
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
Antikensammlung R9

48. “About this time he [Octavian] had the sarcophagus and body of
Alexander the Great brought forth from its shrine, and after
gazing on it, showed his respect by placing upon it a golden
crown and strewing it with flowers; and being then asked
whether he wished to see the tomb of the Ptolemies as well, he
replied, "My wish was to see a king, not corpses.”
Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars. The Life of Augustus, 18.

49. After this he viewed the body of Alexander and
actually touched it, whereupon, it is said, a piece
of the nose was broken off. But he declined p47 to
view the remains of the Ptolemies, though the
Alexandrians were extremely eager to show them,
remarking, "I wished to see a king, not corpses.”
CASSIUS DIO, Roman History Book LI, 16, 5

50. ALEXANDRIA

53. https://jeanclaudegolvin.com

54. https://jeanclaudegolvin.com

61. Shatby

62. Anfushy

63. Kom es-Shoqafa

64. Kom es-Shoqafa

65. El-Latin

66. The Alabaster Tomb
Disc 1907 by Evaristo
Breccia, Dir of the Graeco-
Roman Museum
Reassembled by B’s
successor Achille Adriani –
resumed excavations in
1936
Tomb of high status
Macedonian of early
Ptolemaic(?), but in the
wrong place(?)

67. Mosque of Naby Daniel

68. 1850: Ambroise Schilizzi
A crystal sarcophagus containing a
mummy wearing a golden crown...?

70. “In the midst of the ruins of Alexandria, there still
remains a small edifice, built like a chapel, worthy of
notice on account of a remarkable tomb held in high
honor by the Mahometans; in which sepulchre, they
assert, is preserved the body of Alexander the
Great....An immense crowd of strangers come thither,
even from distant countries, for the sake of worshipping
and doing homage to the tomb, on which they likewise
frequently bestow considerable donations.”
Leo Africanus, Descrittione dell’Africa (1550 CE)

71. “In the centre of this court, a little octagon temple
encloses a cistern of Egyptian workmanship, and
incomparable beauty, both on account of its form,
and of the innumerable hieroglyphics with which it
is covered, inside and out. This monument...appears
to be a sarcophagus.”
Dominique Vivant Denon

72. From Chugg, A,
‘The
Sarcophagus of
Alexander the
Great?’ in
Greece & Rome
49, 1
(April 2002)

73. “'Does your Commander in Chief know that they have the Tomb of
Alexander?' We desired them to describe it; upon which they said it was a
beautiful green stone, taken from the mosque of St
Athanasius; which, among the inhabitants, had always borne that
appellation. … They then related the measures used by the French; the
extraordinary care they had observed to prevent any intelligence of it; the
indignation shewn by the Mahometans at its removal; … they all agreed in
one uniform tradition, namely, ITS BEING THE TOMB OF ISCANDER
(Alexander), THE FOUNDER OF THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA. We were then
told it was in the hold of an hospital ship, in the inner harbour;and being
provided with a boat, we there found it, half filled with filth, and covered
with the rags of the sick people on board..”
E. D. Clarke, The Tomb of Alexander, a dissertation on the sarcophagus from
Alexandria and now in the British Museum (Cambridge, 1805).

74. Mosque of el-Attarin
(St Athanasius)

75. Sarcophagus of Nectanebo II, British Museum

76. In our opinion, Alexander the king of the Macedonians
was the best and most noble of men … We are going now
to speak of the deeds of Alexander, of the virtues of his
body and his spirit, of his good fortune in action and his
bravery; and we will begin with his family and his
paternity. Many say that he was the son of King Philip,
but they are deceivers. This is untrue: he was not Philip’s
son, but the wisest of the Egyptians say that he was the
son of Nectanebo, after the latter had fallen from his
royal state.
Stoneman, Richard. The Greek Alexander Romance
(Classics) (p. 35). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

77. This Nectanebo was skilled in the art of magic, and by its
use overcame all peoples
Stoneman, Richard. The Greek Alexander Romance
(Classics) (p. 35). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

78. I, as an Egyptian prophet, can help you to avoid rejection
by Philip.’ ‘How can you do that?’ she asked. He replied:
‘You must have intercourse with an incarnate god,
become pregnant by him and bear his son and bring him
up. He will be your avenger for the wrongs Philip has
done you.’ ‘Who is the god?’ asked Olympias. ‘Ammon of
Libya,’ he replied. Then Olympias asked him, ‘What form
does this god take?’ ‘He is a man of middle age,’ replied
the prophet, ‘with hair and beard of gold, and horns
growing from his forehead, these also made of gold. You
must make yourself ready for him as befits a queen. This
very day you will see this god come to you, in a dream.’
Stoneman, Richard. The Greek Alexander Romance
(Classics) (p. 35). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

86. Dynasty 30–2nd Persian Period
Saqqara, Tomb of Wennefer
MMA, New York

87. Dynasty 30–early Ptolemaic Period
Saqqara, Tomb of Wereshnefer
MMA, New York

88. General Petesi, Late Period, Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin

93. Ongoing excavations
Directed by
Calliope Limneos-
Papakosta
Hellenic Research
Institute of the
Alexandrian Civilization
Shallalat Gardens

95. Assassin's Creed: Origins

99. THANK YOU!
chrisnaunton.com / @chrisnaunton