An online lecture by Dr Chris Naunton for the Kemet Klub. For more details please see: https://wp.me/P4LqUl-19u

1. THE ARCHAEOLOGY
OF ALEXANDRIA
2: THE TOMB OF
ALEXANDER
THE GREAT
Dr Chris Naunton

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

3. 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

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

5. 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;”

6. The Greek Alexander Romance (Pseudo-Callisthenes):
“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.”

7. 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.

8. MEMPHIS

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

10. Step Pyramid,
Saqqara

11. The Serapeum, Saqqara

12. ©EES

13. Sphinxes of the
Serapeum Way
Excavated by
Mariette, now
in the Louvre,
Paris

14. Alexander the Great
Serapeum dromos during 1940s excavations of Makramallah

15. Serapeum,
‘Hemicycle of
Philosophers’
During 1940s
excavations of
Makramallah

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

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

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

20. 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

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

22. “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.

23. “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

24. “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

25. "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

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

27. “…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

28. “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.

29. 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 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

30. ALEXANDRIA

31. “The Sema also, as it is called, is a part of the royal
palaces.”
Strabo, Geography, Book XVII, 8
"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

34. Alexander - buried three times?
Memphis (Saqqara) - ?

35. Alexander - buried three times?
Memphis (Saqqara) - ?
Alexandria, the sema – constructed by Ptolemy IV

36. Alexander - buried three times?
Memphis (Saqqara) - ?
Alexandria – before the construction of the sema by
Ptolemy IV
Alexandria, the sema – constructed by Ptolemy IV

37. Mosque of Naby Daniel

41. 1850: Ambroise Schilizzi
A crystal sarcophagus containing a
mummy wearing a golden crown...?

43. “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)

44. “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

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

46. “'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).

47. Mosque of el-Attarin
(St Athanasius)

48. Sarcophagus of Nectanebo II, British Museum

49. 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.

50. 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.

51. 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.

52. El-Latin

53. 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(?)

54. Adriani,
Repertorio…
Series C, fig. 217.

55. Adriani,
Repertorio…
Series C, fig.
217.

56. Adriani,
Repertorio…
Series C, fig.
217.

57. Adriani,
Repertorio…
Series C, fig. 217.

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