Doomed Egyptian queen Cleopatra has actually recorded the creativities of individuals all over the world for centuries. Archaeologists have actually long looked for to find her burial place, which she showed her fan, Mark Antony, per popular legend. So far, the search has actually been not successful, although lots of think she would have been buried near the royal palace in Alexandria, Egypt.

National Geographic explorer Kathleen Martinez believes she may be on the edge of finding Cleopatra’s last resting location at a website called Taposiris Magna. Her 20-year journey (and counting) to show her hypothesis– and the amazing brand-new discovery of an immersed ancient port a number of miles off the Mediterranean coast that was most likely once part of that temple– are narrated in Cleopatra’s Final Secreta brand-new documentary from National Geographic.

Martinez has a degree in archaeology however at first ended up being a criminal attorney. She brought that legal training to bear upon the concern of the area of Cleopatra’s burial place, treating it as she would a forensic case. “I tried to understand her personality, who were her friends, who were her enemies,” Martinez informed Ars. “She was a strategist and she always had a Plan A and a Plan B.” It just made good sense to her that Cleopatra would have brought that very same tactical thinking to managing her death. Martinez recommended that the queen scheduled faithful topics to transfer her body through secret tunnels to a covert last resting location.

Martinez understands direct how challenging it can be for prisoners to get food and other products from friends and family, all of which are browsed before reaching the desired recipient. Cleopatra was sent to prison in her palace, and legend has it that an ally brought her a basket of figs, and concealed within was the cobra that provided the Egyptian queen that deadly bite. Martinez contemplated why Cleopatra would have troubled with a real cobra when all she required was the venom, blended in with food or beverage.

Martinez thinks it was since the cobra is connected with Isis in Egyptian folklore, and Cleopatra had actually made her image as being a human representation of the goddess. “It was the symbolism,” stated Martinez. “She was dying, but she was dying as Isis, as a goddess, not as a prisoner. And this is how she became a legend, a myth.” It stood to factor, then, that provided the option, Cleopatra might have scheduled her body (which of Antony) to be buried in a temple of Isis– a conclusion supported by Petrarch’s works, to name a few sources.