Tomb of Alexander the Great

Tomb of Alexander the Great

The tomb of Alexander the Great and, particularly, its exact present location has been a recurring conundrum. Shortly after Alexander's death in Babylon the possession of his body became a subject of negotiations between Perdiccas, Ptolemy I Soter, and Seleucus I Nicator.

When in India, Alexander the Great met a naked philosopher named Calanus, he was an old man who self immolated himself infront of him, rather than turning old and getting sick. His last words to Alexander were, “See you in Babylon” which sounds like the beginning of a cheesy 80’s era song, and Alexander and his soldiers didn’t get the meaning at that point because he had no plans of ever revisiting that city. Only when Alexander later died in Babylon did it make sense to his followers. The discussion of his death is for another day, today we still don’t know where his tomb is.

His coffin was hijacked on its way to Greece, by Ptolemy (his former general who was now ruler of Egypt), and buried him in Alexandria. Caesar visited his tomb, Caligula also did and he looted his breastplate, later Muslim travelers visited it as well and even wrote about it. And then suddenly in the last two hundred years we have no idea where it is. There have been more than 100 search attempts and all have failed. Legend has it he is buried under a Coptic church.