Where is Alexander the Great buried?
It is safe to speak about Alexander the Great - he conquered all the lands that he saw, and died, dreaming about the rest. After his death, the huge and seemingly strong and powerful empire created by Alexander collapsed. She was short-lived because she kept only on the unusual strength of this person and the fear that he instilled even in people close to him. The personality of Alexander the Great to this day is of interest not only to historians and archaeologists, but also to many other people, and the cause of death of the great commander is one of the most interesting mysteries of history.
The identity of the Macedonian from the very birth was surrounded by mystery. There was an opinion among the people that the father of the heir to the Macedonian throne was not at all the one-eyed Philip, the king of Macedonia, but the supreme deity, whom Alexander's mother greeted at night in the temple. Olympias herself, the divinely beautiful priestess of Demeter, diligently supported such rumors.
Already at the age of 16, young Alexander showed himself as a good ruler and a brave warrior. When Philip went on a campaign, he entrusted him with the management of all Macedonia. And the son justified the trust: he was able to cope with the uprising of the Thracians and founded several cities in the pacified country, which he called the cities of Alexander. We can say that it was from this time that his great campaign began.
The life of the Macedonian was like a meteorite, which, having drawn a bright trail, disappears into the immense blackness of the heavens. The birth of the divine Alexander was mysterious, and his death was just as mysterious.
According to data provided by various historical sources, Alexander died in Babylon, among the faithful diadochi (followers). His body was placed in a golden sarcophagus and buried with honors … But to this day, no one has ever seen the grave of Alexander the Great. Its location has remained a mystery for more than two millennia.
In our time, there are several versions about the death and burial place of Alexander the Great.
• The first version was suggested by the famous Soviet writer Ivan Efremov. In one of his works, he mentioned a crown made of black metal, which caused Alexander's serious illness and death. During the Indian campaign, the great commander found in a remote village a small temple in which the crown of the gods was kept. The proud Macedonian king demanded the crown from the priests. “Beware,” the high priest warned him, “this crown can only be worn by the one in whose veins the blood of the gods flows. A man, touching the black crown, will fall dead."
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Being confident in his divine origin, the great commander laughed at the words of the priest and, putting on a crown, went out to the steps of the temple. Suddenly Alexander staggered and, losing consciousness, fell to the ground. The black crown rolled off his head. When the Macedonian king came to his senses, it turned out that he practically did not remember anything about his grandiose plans. Trying to regain his unexpectedly lost memory, Alexander returns to Babylon, after some time, weakening from an incomprehensible illness, he dies.
Fulfilling the last will of one of the greatest conquerors in the history of mankind, the companions of Alexander transport his body to Egypt and make a burial near the temple of Neith. Unfortunately, there is not a single documentary confirmation of such a version, and today it is considered just an invention of a famous writer. Not to mention the fact that in Egypt there actually exists a symbolic tomb of Alexander the Great, but his body is not in it. Although, according to the evidence of many historical documents, it is in the kingdom of Egypt that the remains of this great man should be sought.
• The second version belongs to the American writer and historian Adrin Mayor. Studying the history of the origin of bioterrorism and chemical weapons, she suggested that the death of the Macedonian king was not accidental. Conspiracies were drawn up against the great commander more than once, including among his closest associates. And, happily escaping death on the battlefield, he could well fall victim to poison at one of the feasts. Moreover, the first signs of an unknown illness appeared in Alexander immediately after one of the many feasts. Returning to the palace after one of these feasts, the Macedonian felt a fever. He decided to take a bath, but from weakness he was forced to lie down right there in the bath. The next evening, he had a second attack of the disease. Every day the condition of the great commander worsened, and two weeks later he died.
This version of the death of Alexander the Great, despite its plausibility, also did not find support from researchers studying the era of Alexander's reign. Historians almost unanimously hold a different opinion about the causes of the death of the Macedonian king.
• The last of the versions concerning the death of this great man and having the largest number of supporters says that the king died not from poison and not because of the wrath of the offended gods. In one of his campaigns, the commander contracted tropical malaria. The disease slowly eroded the strength of his body, until in the end one of the attacks knocked down this strong and indomitable man.
Despite the widespread opinions about the version of the Macedonian death, many historians are similar in one thing: whatever the reasons for the death of the Macedonian king, his tomb must be sought in Egypt - a country to which the great commander came not as a conqueror, but as a liberator. Only thanks to him did the Egyptians get rid of the Persian yoke. Moreover, he was very careful about the religion of Egypt and even at times himself turned to the Egyptian oracles for advice. During his stay in this country, the Macedonian king founded the city of Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, which later became the largest commercial and cultural center of the Hellenic world.
Recognizing the Macedonian as their ruler, the Egyptians unconditionally obeyed Alexander's companion and friend Ptolemy Lagus, whom the Macedonian king left to rule the country. It was Ptolemy who insisted that Alexander's body be buried near the city of Alexandria he founded. (The king himself bequeathed to bury himself in the Siwa oasis, where the priests recognized his descent from Amun.) But his last will was not fulfilled. After the death of the commander, disputes began between the diodes over the possession of the body of their commander, since it was obvious to everyone that whoever erected the tomb of the great commander in his country would be officially recognized as his successor.
In this regard, Ptolemy, who was the first to realize such a prospect, took the sarcophagus with the body, first to Memphis, and then to Alexandria and hid it in an underground tomb. The sarcophagus stayed there for three hundred years.
In the 30th year BC. e. the final resting place of the greatest conqueror in the history of mankind was visited by the Roman emperor Augustus, who seized Alexandria. And after some time, the soldier emperor Septimius Sever ordered to wall up the underground tomb, and since that time no one could find it. The search for the mysterious tomb continues to this day. There have been repeated attempts to investigate Alexander's burial complex in Egypt. But despite all the efforts made, the researchers did not find anything except a mosaic bas-relief, which displayed the face of the great commander.
For many years, archaeologists have tried to find out this secret from the ancient Egyptian land. But the first version about the possible location of the tomb of the Macedonian king appeared only in the 20th century. Trying to find traces of some cities that disappeared without a trace, archaeologists accidentally discovered very curious things that may help shed light on the location of the tomb of Alexander the Great.
In a small Egyptian bay near Cape Aboukira, monuments of ancient civilization were found at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. They were discovered by French marine archaeologists led by Frank Goddio.
The first traces of sunken cities were found in 1996 during an underwater search in the Aboukir region, which, according to ancient sources, was connected by a canal to Alexandria. But long before this, archaeologists and historians tried, using numerous historical literature, to shed light on the location of the cities of Canopus, Menotis and Heraklion, which are mentioned in numerous texts. Together with Alexandria, they constituted one of the largest cultural and commercial centers of those times. The location of these cities was helped to establish an electronic map made by archaeologists and geophysicists from France, which in the smallest detail reflected the relief of the bottom of the bay. Then the marine archaeologists got down to business.
Having studied the seabed within a radius of ten kilometers, they found numerous monuments dating back to the Pharaonic, Hellenistic and Roman periods of history. Granite sculptures, fragments of basalt statues, gold coins and jewelry are all part of the monuments of ancient civilization. Their age is more than 2.5 thousand years.
Raised to the surface of the earth, they strike and shock at the same time. When looking at the ancient finds, there is a feeling that the unforgiving time has absolutely not touched these beautiful creations of human hands. All of this evokes a mixed feeling of a sense of the power and grandeur of history. But what is most striking is the fact that the sculptures, which have lain for more than one century under layers of sand, are perfectly preserved. And those minor destruction that were caused to numerous finds, according to archaeologists, are not temporary. They are more likely caused by mechanical damage (researchers believe that this ancient civilization died as a result of a strong earthquake, which wiped out several cities at once).
• Several sarcophagi were found among the remains of ancient cities. These findings prompted archaeologists to think that perhaps among these monuments is the tomb of Alexander the Great. But this is only one of the versions. There are other opinions as well. Some historians believe that the walled up underground tomb could well be located not in Egypt, but in the East, at the intersection of the modern street of the Prophet Daniel and Avenue of Gamal Abdel Nasser. By the way, the opinion that the Mosque of the Prophet Daniel was built on the site of Alexander's mausoleum persists among the local population to this day.
• Another theory was put forward by archaeologist L. Suvalidis from Greece. While excavating near Siwa in 1990, she discovered a large burial complex. Its construction and murals on the walls, according to experts, are not typical of the Egyptians. Opening the tomb, archaeologists found an alabaster sarcophagus, apparently made not in Egypt, a bas-relief with an eight-pointed star (Alexander's personal symbol) and three steles with inscriptions in ancient Greek.
The main stele read: “Alexander Amon-Ra. In the name of the most venerable Alexander, I offer these sacrifices at the direction of God and bring here a body, as light as the smallest shield, while I am Lord of Egypt. I was the bearer of his secrets and the executor of his orders, I was honest with him and with all people. And since I am the last one who is still alive, here I declare that I did all of the above for his sake. Ptolemy Lag.
Inspired by this find, archaeologists decided to continue excavations, but the Egyptian authorities, for some unknown reason, opposed this. As a result, it was not possible to find out whether this burial complex is the legendary tomb of Alexander the Great, or whether the body of the conqueror should be looked for elsewhere.
• And finally, the latest version about the location of the grave of Alexander the Great is based on the message of Krasimira Stoyanova, the niece of the prophetess Vanga. In her book "The Truth About Vanga" she wrote that somehow a sheet of paper covered with strange hieroglyphs fell into her hands. The person who brought it claimed that it was written here about the location of the ancient treasure and that only Vanga could read this inscription. Interested, Krasimira showed the sheet to the blind prophetess, and she, holding it in her hands, said the following:
“Nobody can read this text today. Both the text and the map have been copied more than once: from generation to generation people are trying to discover the secret of the text. But no one can decipher it. And the speech in this document is not at all about secret treasures, but about ancient writing, to this day not known to the world. The same hieroglyphs are inscribed on the inside of a stone coffin, hidden deep in the ground thousands of years ago. And even if by chance the sarcophagus is found, they will not be able to read the letters. This sarcophagus is hidden in our land by people who came from Egypt."
Vanga's words were extremely vague, however, like any prophecy, but if you consider that Vanga lived in the city of Rulita, which is only 100 km from Pella (the ancient capital of Macedonia), then we can assume that she did not mean found sarcophagus with the body of the Macedonian king. And maybe, in reality, the time for solving this mystery has not yet come.
O. Kuzmenko