Was Alexander the Great eaten by sharks? Inside the wild theories for what

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Alexander the terrific passed away in 323 B.C. and his body was ultimately transferred to Alexandria, Egypt. The area of his burial place was lost centuries earlier.
( Image credit: Rocio Espin Pinar)

When Alexander the Great passed away in 323 B.C., 13 years after constructing among the world’s biggest empires, he left what would turn into one of the greatest unsolved secrets in archaeology

Scientists have actually fiercely discussed where Alexander the Great is buriedwith theories varying from his homeland in Macedonia (now Greece )to Egypt.

Like the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant, the burial place has actually handled a legendary status that has actually mesmerized numerous archaeologists throughout the years.

“As long as his tomb isn’t found, he lives on in a quasi-mystical limbo, forever sparking new ideas and theories and controversies,” Nicholas Saundersa teacher emeritus in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom and author of the book “The Life of Alexander the Great” (Brighter Child, 2006 ), informed Live Science in an e-mail.

Hundreds have actually looked for the burial place, to no get.

“I remember in 1963 when I was a student at Alexandria University, there was a Greek man who was doing excavations near the [train] station,” Zahi Hawassan archaeologist, Egyptologist and Egypt’s previous minister of antiquities, informed Live Science. “I used to go and see his excavations. He found nothing, but he stayed five years, searching.”

Have archaeologists made any development on discovering the burial place? Calliope Limneos-Papakostadirector and creator of the Hellenic Research Institute of Alexandrian Civilization, who is presently excavating in Alexandria, Egypt, believes she’s close.

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The burial place might be concealed underneath the streets of modern-day Alexandria, at the crossway of 2 ancient roads, she stated. An interesting Hellenistic statue and other indications of ancient quarters from the best duration indicate an extremely appealing area.

“I am at the crossroads, and I believe that I have more possibilities to find the tomb than anybody else,” Limneos-Papakosta informed Live Science.

Why discovering the burial place is so tough

One factor the burial place still hasn’t been discovered is due to the fact that Alexander’s body was moved, therefore he was buried more than when.

In addition, historic records of the burial place are limited and were frequently composed centuries after the occasions they explain. Each of those sources had a political program or predisposition, stated Paul Cartledgea teacher emeritus of Greek culture at the University of Cambridge.

“So, you have to take everything with a large pinch of salt,” Cartledge, author of “Alexander the Great” (Overlook Press, 2004), informed Live Science.

Intensifying the problem is that there are no clear pictures of the burial place that might assist historical searches, Saunders included.

The modern-day city of Alexandria was mainly constructed over the initial.

“Modern Alexandria, especially the downtown area, was built completely above ancient monuments,” Hawass stated. “The theater was found while they were building houses. And catacombs were also found.”

To discover the burial place, archaeologists would need to collect locations where individuals live and work today, which is challenging without strong proof that something crucial lies below.

What we understand about Alexander’s death and burial

We understand from historians like Plutarch that, at age 32, Alexander passed away at some point in between the night of June 10 and the early morning of June 11, 323 B.C., in Babylon (modern-day Iraq)His cause of death is questionable, with some proposing he passed away of illness such as typhus or malaria or from consuming poisoned white wineand others arguing he was assassinated(A couple of individuals even believe he was stated dead too soon)

Related: How did Alexander the Great pass away?

Despite what eliminated Alexander, his body was mummified. Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general who was Alexander’s friend and bodyguard, contributed in moving the body.

“His corpse was taken en route via the Middle East through what is now Iraq to what’s now Syria,” Cartledge stated. From there, over 2 years, it would take a trip nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) to Egypt.

A painting of Alexander the Great on his deathbed. ( Image credit: Chronicle through Alamy)

Ptolemy had a program: Alexander had actually left no clear political successor(His spouse Roxana was pregnant with his boy and he might have had an invalid successorand developing a burial place for Alexander was a method to seal Ptolemy’s position as the genuine follower to the Macedonian king, Cartledge stated.

Alexander’s body was then delivered to the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt, where much of the New Kingdom pharaohs were buried, while the recently established city of Alexandria was being constructed.

“In 305 B.C., 18 years after he died, Alexander’s corpse was brought to Alexandria, by which time there’s a royal court, a palace and a museum,” Cartledge stated. “Having Alexander buried there would have been the icing on the cake” for the nascent city.

A couple of years later on, accounts by Greek geographer Strabo recommend Ptolemy IV Philopator, the 4th pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt and the great-grandson of Ptolemy I, moved Alexander’s body to its last recorded resting location: Soma, Alexandria’s terrific mausoleum, according to the book “Alexander’s Tomb: The Two Thousand Year Obsession to Find the Lost Conqueror” (Basic Books, 2006).

Related: 2nd-century Alexander the Great statue with lion’s-hair hairdo uncovered in Turkey

It was still there around 300 years later on, when the very first Roman emperor, Augustus (ruled 27 B.C. to A.D. 14), checked out Alexandria.

“He was desperate to view the corpse of Alexander,” Cartledge stated. “Apparently it was so visible that when he bent down, he knocked the corpse’s nose off.”

After that, the historic record makes no referral to the burial place for centuries. “It disappears from mention around A.D. 500,” Cartledge stated.

Huge spaces in the timeline

What occurred to the burial place throughout the big spaces in the historic record has actually given fevered speculation and even straight-out conspiracy theories since. These time periods likewise make it tough to concentrate on particular theories about the burial place’s present place.

Saunders believes these interludes in the timeline are weird.

“It was only some 300 years after Alexander’s death that we get an account [of the tomb],” while a lot of records originate from 600 years later on, Saunders informed Live Science in an e-mail. “So, what happened in the intervening period? Why the silence?”

For centuries, the burial place was a “very well-known pilgrimage center across the ancient Mediterranean world,” he included, so at the time, the “location was not a secret.”

It’s possible that no one troubled to explain the burial place’s place due to the fact that everybody understood where it was. There likewise might have been a competition in between Christians gathering to Christ’s burial place and pagans worshipping at Alexander’s burial place. As soon as Christianity had the upper hand, Church daddies might have “made sure traces of the tomb were removed/damaged/destroyed so that Christ’s tomb could then become the preeminent pilgrimage center of the ancient world,” Saunders stated.

“Alexander is buried in Alexandria, and we are sure about that because in the first century A.D., we have information about visitors to the tomb, including Roman emperors like Julius Caesar.”
Calliope Limneos-Papakosta

Limneos-Papakosta believes the website’s area might have been lost throughout the Alexandrian Crusade in 1365, which rummaged the city, though no historic records recommend the burial place or real body was ruined, she stated. One possibility is connected to the praise cult that developed around Alexander the GreatWhile it seemingly passed away out countless years earlier, there might have been individuals left in Alexandria who, throughout the crusade, still felt contacted us to safeguard Alexander’s remains from the inbound crusaders, who would have abhored the praise of pagan gods.

“I believe that the priesthood around the cult of Alexander protected the tomb,” Limneos-Papakosta stated. “He was considered a god, and they tried to protect him when they realized that destruction was coming by Christians. I believe that they hid his body and sarcophagus.”

Due to the fact that Alexander’s last recognized resting location remained in Alexandria, many scientists concur that his burial place is most likely concealed someplace in the Egyptian city.

“Alexander is buried in Alexandria, and we are sure about that because in the first century A.D., we have information about visitors to the tomb, including Roman emperors like Julius Caesar,” Limneos-Papakosta informed Live Science. “So, we know that the tomb was there.”

Precisely where in Alexandria is the concern.

The statue of Alexander the Great discovered by Limneos-Papakosta. (Image credit: Calliope Limneos-Papakosta)

Shallalat Gardens

Limneos-Papakosta has one theory. Throughout a 2009 excavation, she found a sculpture of Alexander, according to an short article she composed for Newsweek

“It was our last day at the site, and we were ready to end the season,” she stated. “But then we found the sculpture. It was kind of a miracle.”

Topographical maps and ancient sources recommend the location where the statue was discovered is close to where his burial place was as soon as situated, Limneos-Papakosta stated, and her group has actually been excavating in the location since. Now, she believes she’s getting close, narrowing it down to the Shallalat Garden location of modern-day Alexandria, situated near the Alexandria National Museum, which includes the residues of the city’s walls. Ancient sources recommend the royal quarters remained in this area throughout antiquity, she stated, yet they had actually never ever been excavated, she stated.

The dig website is beside a previous ancient crossway pointed out by second-century Greek author Achilles Tatius, who explains the burial place’s area.

“He wrote that it was a few hundred meters west of the intersection of Alexandria’s two main broad streets,” she stated. Thanks to the present excavations, “we already knew of one of the broad streets [known as Canopic Street], but now we know of the second, Royal Street.”

A map of ancient Alexandria attracted 1889. The shoreline of the modern-day city has actually altered substantially. (Image credit: Classic Image through Getty Images )

Under the sea

Others believe Limneos-Papakosta is on the incorrect track.

Cartledge, for his part, hypothesizes that the body should have been housed inside a big mausoleum that became part of a royal complex. And he believes the royal quarters were found in a various area than Papakosta-Limneos does.

“A mausoleum conveys the notion that it’s a very solid structure that should be locatable,” Cartledge stated. “The one in Rome, Augustus’ mausoleum, is completely visible. Why isn’t the mausoleum of Alexander visible? The simple answer is that the Brucheum of Alexandria, where the royal quarters were, abutted the sea,” Cartledge stated. (The Brucheum was a specific quarter of Alexandria.)

Sea levels have actually increased a number of meters because the time of Alexander, historic maps recommendso big swaths of the historic city, consisting of the royal quarters, most likely sit undersea.

In the last few years, scuba divers have actually checked out the city’s shoreline and discovered pieces that might come from ancient structures.

Even if a mausoleum is discovered, there’s no assurance a body would be within. “Unless he was in a coffin that preserved his body, he will never be found,” Cartledge stated. “My guess is that his body could’ve been eaten by a shark.”

The waterside of modern-day Alexandria. New structures have actually been built on top of ancient websites for centuries. (Image credit: robertharding by means of Alamy)

Mazarita district

Saunders believes the burial place is still on dry land, most likely underneath the dynamic streets of the contemporary Mazarita district, a location that was when the ancient city’s center and housed its palaces.

“Unless and until new building projects require demolition and clearance to a deep level, it is unlikely to be discovered,” Saunders stated. “For me, it is all but inconceivable it could be anywhere else.”

Hawass does not have one website in mind, however he’s positive that the burial place will be discovered one day.

“Can we say that the tomb can be discovered?” Hawass stated. “Yes.”

It most likely will not be discovered by archaeologists who are browsing for it. The theater, catacombs and a lot of ancient Alexandria’s monoliths were discovered by mishap, thanks to modern-day building and construction.

“The tomb will never be discovered by scholars — at all,” Hawass stated. “I really believe that by accident one day, the tomb of Alexander the Great will be discovered.”

Jennifer Nalewicki is previous Live Science personnel author and Salt Lake City-based reporter whose work has actually been included in The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American, Popular Mechanics and more. She covers a number of science subjects from world Earth to paleontology and archaeology to health and culture. Prior to freelancing, Jennifer held an Editor function sometimes Inc. Jennifer has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from The University of Texas at Austin.