NARRATOR: Egypt, the land of pyramids,
and the Valley of the Kings, grand tombs for great pharaohs.
Hundreds of royal mummies are discovered here,
but the body of one iconic ruler is missing --
Alexander the Great, conqueror of ancient Egypt.
Alexander the Great is a name who rings through history.
NARRATOR: One of the world's most successful
military commanders.
Worshipped as a god.
NARRATOR: Now, explorers are on a mission...
Wow.
...to find the lost tomb of Alexander.
Where is Alexander buried?
What does his tomb look like?
And how was he lost to history?
ARTO: Finding his tomb would be one of
the most incredible and earth-shattering
archeological discoveries ever.
NARRATOR: To solve these mysteries,
we unearth millennia-old tombs,
we blow apart ancient structures,
digitally reconstruct Alexander's lost tomb
and his magnificent mausoleum
to investigate one of history's most
enduring mysteries,
the hunt for the lost tomb of Alexander the Great.
Alexandria, Egypt,
founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE.
He is one of the most celebrated names in all history
and wages one of the most
successful military campaigns of all time.
He had both the charisma to command his troops
while at the same time being a master military tactician.
NARRATOR: By the age of 20, Alexander conquers all
of Greece.
Then he invades Egypt and becomes a pharaoh.
At 30, he is king of Persia,
ruling the largest empire in the world.
Egyptologist Arto Belekdanian
is fascinated by Alexander the Great
and his military prowess.
ARTO: This map shows the conquests of Alexander
the Great -- from his home in Macedonia in 334 BC,
he sets out on his epic struggle against
the Persians, and he defeats all in his way.
NARRATOR: But Alexander's success is short-lived.
He is cut down in his prime, aged just 32.
There are several conflicting reports, but most sources agree
that there was a long period of high fever.
NARRATOR: Alexander is one of the most
powerful men who ever lives.
He is worthy of a magnificent burial.
According to legend, when Alexander dies,
his embalmers preserve his body in honey.
They dress him in his military outfit
before encasing his corpse in a golden coffin.
The gold is later replaced with glass.
He is sealed in a stone sarcophagus.
Where is this great conqueror's final resting place?
And what does his tomb look like?
ARTO: The location of the tomb of Alexander
the Great is one of archaeology's absolute
greatest mysteries.
People have been hunting for it for centuries.
NARRATOR: Alexander dies in Babylon,
the most spectacular city of the ancient world.
Priests embalm his body.
Then his generals begin the long journey to
take Alexander back to his homeland in Macedonia.
But during the journey, they run into trouble.
One of the best sources describing
what happened comes from the Parian marble.
NARRATOR: The Parian marble is a chronological list of
ancient events.
It is carved by the ancient Greeks
around 60 years after Alexander dies.
ARTO: And it reads,
Alexander was laid to rest in Memphis,
not in Macedonia.
NARRATOR: After attending a banquet in Babylon in 323 BCE,
Alexander the Great falls ill and dies.
Two years later, his perfectly preserved body leaves Babylon
in a majestic funerary procession
to return to Macedonia.
But Alexander's closest general, Ptolemy,
diverts the convoy to Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt.
Ptolemy follows a Macedonian custom
of burying his predecessor so that
he can assert his own right to the throne.
Arto heads to Saqqara, the necropolis
of Memphis, in search of Alexander's tomb.
Here, we have tombs dating back
to the very dawn of Egyptian history.
NARRATOR: Saqqara is where the ancient Egyptians build
the very first pyramid,
the revolutionary step pyramid of Djoser.
This necropolis is a fitting place
for any pharaoh to be buried.
Arto starts his search in the cemetery of
the 30th Dynasty.
It is in use just before Alexander
takes control of Egypt.
This site is first excavated in 1850
by French archaeologist, Auguste Mariette.
Beneath the sand,
Mariette finds an avenue lined with statues of sphinxes
that leads to the ruins of an Egyptian temple,
one of the last to be built before Alexander conquers Egypt.
On the southern side, he discovers a chamber
just the right size for a pharaoh's sarcophagus.
Guarding the entrance of the temple,
an unusual semi-circle of 12 statues,
not of Egyptian gods but of Greek philosophers.
Could this be the tomb of Alexander the Great?
Wow.
Look at that.
So here are the statues, the statues of the philosophers,
the writers.
NARRATOR: The statues show signs of erosion
from long exposure to the elements.
But Arto can make out some key details.
ARTO: We can instantly tell that they're
done in the Greek classical Hellenistic tradition.
The pose, the dress, everything --
that is decidedly not Egyptian.
NARRATOR: The statues have been dated to around 300 BCE,
shortly after Alexander is laid to rest.
Arto believes the identity of the statues is
a clue that Alexander could be buried here.
We've got Homer, Plato,
Pindar,
and then Demetrius,
the leading philosopher at the time of Ptolemy.
Alexander the Great definitely would have been familiar
with at least some of these people here,
and he received an excellent education.
NARRATOR: The statues of Alexander's revered
Greek philosophers is
persuasive evidence that this could be his tomb.
But there is one discrepancy.
This tomb is distinctly Egyptian in style.
Arto turns to Auguste Marriott's photos
from his excavations to understand why,
and he finds something intriguing
ARTO: It shows a king in the company of a goddess.
We've got hieroglyphic inscriptions, including,
best of all, cartouches,
allowing us to identify who this king is.
And it's Nectanebo II.
NARRATOR: The tomb is originally built for Nectanebo II,
the last native Egyptian pharaoh before Alexander,
but he never uses it.
There it was, a royal monument
befitting a pharaoh, just not being used.
And it is entirely possible that Ptolemy used it
for Alexander.
NARRATOR: But contemporary accounts reveal that
Alexander's body doesn't stay in Memphis for long.
ARTO: Ancient sources tell us that the body
of Alexander the Great was moved from Memphis
to Alexandria.
NARRATOR: In 305 BCE, Ptolemy becomes pharaoh
and moves the capital of Egypt from Memphis to Alexandria.
His successor, Ptolemy Philadelphus, removes
the body of Alexander from Memphis
so that it can be buried in the new capital.
It's possible Philadelphus uses
the sarcophagus of Nectanebo II
to transport the great conqueror to Alexandria,
before laying his body to rest in
a grand Macedonian tomb at the heart of the city.
Finding his tomb would be one of
the most incredible and earth-shattering archeological
discoveries ever.
NARRATOR: Is Alexander the Great's
ultimate tomb in Alexandria?
Can a monumental structure on
the city's outskirts reveal clues?
NARRATOR: Alexandria,
the jewel of Egypt,
named after its founder, Alexander the Great,
the Macedonian warrior king who becomes pharaoh.
Arto Belekdanian
is on the hunt for Alexander's tomb in Egypt's
ancient capital.
ARTO: Ancient sources tell us that the body
of Alexander the Great was moved
from Memphis to Alexandria and buried somewhere
in the city.
NARRATOR: He starts his mission at a mysterious
white alabaster tomb on the edge of Alexandria.
ARTO: This tomb was excavated in 1907,
and it is believed to date to the very dawn
of the Ptolemaic Period.
So we're talking Ptolemy I, Ptolemy II, during whose reigns
is when the body of Alexander was moved from Memphis
to Alexandria.
NARRATOR: In its original form,
this large alabaster doorway lies under a mound of earth,
a typical feature of a Macedonian tomb.
The entrance leads to a burial
chamber for an important Macedonian figure.
Could this be Alexander's last resting place?
The burial chamber is lost to history.
So Arto starts his investigation
in the entrance chamber.
ARTO: Just looking at this monument, you can tell that this
belongs to someone immensely influential.
I mean, first of all, just the simple size of it,
and the fact that it's made
of this beautiful alabaster and monolithic,
massive blocks of it, as well.
To get alabaster of this quality was a vast expense,
something that only royalty could afford.
NARRATOR: Arto compares the structure to
the entrance of Alexander's father's tomb ,
which is unearthed in northern Greece.
We can tell that these are done in the same tradition.
They are remarkably similar.
So we've got this doorway,
a facade, that leads into the chambers inside,
and it's all under a mound.
NARRATOR: The entrance has the same layout as Alexander's
father's tomb.
And Arto believes it looks identical on the outside, too.
This was not meant to be seen.
This would have been underground, under the tumulus,
the hill.
NARRATOR: Arto pieces together the clues.
ARTO: What we have here is a lavish tomb
that is done in a purely Greco-Macedonian style,
and it dates to very early on in the Ptolemaic period,
so Ptolemy I, Ptolemy II.
What that means is
this is a very strong contender for
the tomb of Alexander the Great in Alexandria.
NARRATOR: But when archeologists search
for the larger burial chamber
that should connect to the entrance chamber,
they find nothing.
Instead, they discover a surprising feature.
Less than three feet from the structure,
experts unearth a well, built more
than 600 years after Alexander's death.
What does it reveal about the origin of the tomb?
ARTO: The fact that the alabaster tomb is
right here above the well that is supposedly much
later in date has led some to argue that the alabaster tomb
is not sitting in its original location,
but rather that it was moved here.
NARRATOR: The evidence suggests the tomb is moved from
the city center to where it stands now.
This aligns remarkably with historical sources, which state
that Alexander's first tomb
is only temporary before he is moved to something more lavish.
What this means is the alabaster tomb may very well
be the first tomb of Alexander the Great in Alexandria.
NARRATOR: Alexander views himself as a god
and son of the almighty Greek deity, Zeus.
His successors promote his God-King image in
a cult to legitimize their own divine rule over Egypt.
To strengthen the dynastic cult, Ptolemy IV Philopator
removes Alexander from
his tomb to place him in a new royal monument called the Soma.
This grand edifice not only contains the body of Alexander
but also the ashes of the three first Ptolemaic kings.
This was a very clever PR move.
By doing so, Ptolemy IV forged a link in
the public mind between Alexander the Great
and his dynasty,
thus having the divinity of Alexander the Great
reflect onto his own dynasty.
NARRATOR: Even in death,
Alexander wields significant power.
Ptolemy IV uses this connection
to the iconic ruler to his advantage.
Where is the Soma, the final resting place of Alexander?
Could clues in an ancient map
reveal the location of Alexander's last mausoleum,
a structure so grand, it could
even rival one of the Seven Wonders?
NARRATOR: Alexander the Great is buried in two temporary tombs
before he is finally laid to rest in a grand mausoleum,
the Soma, in the center of his capital city, Alexandria.
But its location is lost from the history books.
Archaeologist Alicia Johnson joins the search.
When you're on the hunt for Alexander the Great,
you have to think like a detective, you have to dig
through the pitfalls.
But in the end, it's exciting, because
we are in the search of a legend.
NARRATOR: Alicia believes that the lavish
Soma lies somewhere beneath modern Alexandria.
She begins her search at Qaitbay Citadel,
a 15th century CE fort located by Alexandria's
great harbor.
It gives her a spectacular view across the ancient city.
Alexandria is the largest city in antiquity.
Ancient texts describe the great monuments
spread across the capital,
temples dedicated to Greek and Egyptian gods,
vast palaces, a famed library.
and a majestic lighthouse over the harbor.
Ptolemy IV reburies Alexander in
a grand mausoleum somewhere in the city,
but the ancient city is all buried beneath
modern Alexandria.
Where is Alexander buried?
The first clue comes from Roman
poet Lucan, who describes the Soma.
"Though you preserve Alexander in the consecrated grotto,
"and the ashes of the kings rest beneath a loftily
"constructed edifice,
"though the dead Ptolemies and their unworthy
"dynasty are covered by indignant pyramids
and mausoleums..."
NARRATOR: This could mean Alexander's mausoleum has
a triangular or pyramid-shaped roof.
And the clue ties in with an intriguing
inscription left behind by a Roman trader,
Julius Philosyrius.
As a trader, he more than most likely
would have visited Alexandria,
and on his sarcophagus,
there's quite an interesting inscription
in regards to the possible location of
Alexander the Great.
NARRATOR: The sarcophagus shows a harbor scene
with a lighthouse on the right -- on the left,
a structure that resembles the royal palace,
and in between the two, a tall building with
a triangular-shaped roof, just as the Soma is described
by Lucan.
Alicia wants to narrow down the tomb's location
by comparing the inscription on the sarcophagus to the known
location of ancient landmarks.
We are at the modern day Qaitbay Citadel, which is
the location for where the ancient lighthouse of
Alexandria was constructed.
NARRATOR: The lighthouse of Alexandria is
a marvel of engineering,
one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
It stands up to 360 feet and dominates the skyline
of Alexandria.
Alicia has identified the first clue.
The Soma must lie between here and the royal palace.
She examines further written references.
ALICIA: A final clue comes from the ancient Greek
author, Zenobius.
He claimed that the Soma was in
the center of the heart of Alexandria.
And while it's not exactly very specific,
we can refer back to ancient maps to maybe be able to
consider where might Alexander have been buried?
NARRATOR: The clues lead Alicia to one of
the oldest roads that runs through modern Alexandria.
ALICIA: We're right near El Horreya, which is an ancient
road that has followed its way for thousands of years.
NARRATOR: El Horreya is the principal road of
the ancient city, running east to west through the center.
And it's really useful for me, because it allows me to be
able to orientate myself when evaluating and researching
ancient maps of the city.
NARRATOR: Alicia investigates a map drawn by Egyptian
cartographer, Mahmud Bey, in the late 1800s.
It's one of the most accurate maps we have
of ancient Alexandria.
Maps such as these help
us to be able to consider where might ancient sites be
found in modern day locations.
NARRATOR: Mahmud marks the junction of El Horreya
and a second unnamed road as the center of the ancient city.
The ancient crossroads must be somewhere along the El Horreya,
the main road that still runs through the heart of the city.
Legends say Alexander designs his city
by marking out the boundaries using barley flour.
Thousands of birds flock down to eat the flour.
But Alexander's prophet takes this as a good omen
that the city will provide for its people.
The city borders are said to take
the shape of a Macedonian military cloak, and inside,
the planners lay out streets in a series of grids.
At its heart, the two main roads intersect to
form the most prestigious crossroad of Alexandria.
Further up El Horreya,
Alicia stops at a large crossroads.
ALICIA: The crossroads at the heart of the city of Alexandria.
Logically speaking, this might be
where Alexander the Great is buried.
NARRATOR: Today, very little of the ancient city survives.
But all the clues suggest Alexander's grand
mausoleum lies right here beneath this modern crossroads.
The Roman texts described the famous Soma
towering over the city for over 600 years.
But by 390 CE, this iconic monument
is never mentioned again.
It is wiped from history.
ALICIA: What happens to him is a mystery.
Where had Alexander the Great gone?
NARRATOR: What happens to Alexander's grand mausoleum?
Could the discovery of 2,000-year-old ruins
reveal what it looks like?
NARRATOR: Alexander the Great, one of history's most
enigmatic figures.
He builds one of the greatest empires the world has
ever seen,
and at the age of just 32, he dies.
He is buried in a grand mausoleum in Alexandria,
where his tomb,
the Soma, vanishes from history.
What it looks like has been a mystery
for thousands of years.
Investigator Andrew Chugg
is at the British Museum in search
of clues to the design of Alexander's mausoleum.
He begins his investigation at statues found at
the ruins of one of the wonders
of the ancient world,
the mausoleum of Halicarnassus.
ANDREW: Here's a horse from a tomb at Halicarnassus.
To give you an idea of the scale of this tomb,
this is one of four horses that stood
at the apex of its stepped pyramidal roof.
NARRATOR: Andrew believes there is a connection
between the mausoleum and Alexander's own tomb.
The clue again comes from the Roman poet, Lucan.
ANDREW: The interesting point here is that the poet Lucan,
in describing Alexander's tomb in Alexandria, also calls it
specifically a mausoleum.
So he's drawing a link between Alexander's tomb
in Alexandria and the spectacular tomb
of Mausolus in Halicarnassus.
NARRATOR: The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus is a towering
monument, built just 25 years before Alexander dies,
built for King Mausolus the Greek Kingdom, Caria,
whose name gives us the word
mausoleum to describe a monumental tomb.
Can this monument unlock what Alexander's tomb looks like?
ANDREW: Here is a statue of King Mausolus
taken from his tomb,
the tomb that we call the Mausoleum.
It was indeed the very first mausoleum,
named after this king.
NARRATOR: Philip IV, the Greek pharaoh who
builds Alexander's tomb calls it a mausoleum.
The deliberate use of the specific new word
suggests that the buildings look alike.
So Alexander's tomb is a grand, columned building,
which stands on top of
a great pedestal with a pyramidal-shaped roof.
ANDREW: Ptolemy Philopator
was building a mausoleum, not just for Alexander,
but also for his own ancestors.
He wanted to build a quintessentially
Greek monument
in Alexandria to celebrate them as Greek kings.
So that's probably why he chose to use the mausoleum
at Halicarnassus as his model.
NARRATOR: And there is strong evidence
Alexander saw the mausoleum at Halicarnassus for himself.
In 367 BCE,
King Mausolus rules part of
the eastern Mediterranean from his palace in Halicarnassus.
After a 24-year reign, Mausolus dies,
leaving his wife, Artemisia, heartbroken.
[sobbing noises]
Inspired by nearby monuments,
she builds her husband a grand tomb
that, over time, takes on his name,
the Mausoleum.
Seventeen years later, Alexander the Great
captures Halicarnassus.
The retreating Persians set fire to the city,
but the great Mausoleum is spared.
Halicarnassus is destroyed in a series of earthquakes
in the Middle Ages.
But historical records talk of its spectacular height.
Ancient sources indicate that the mausoleum at Halicarnassus,
the original Mausoleum, was about 45 meters high.
We don't have a specific record of the height of
Alexander's tomb,
but I think we can imagine it must have been at least on
the same scale.
NARRATOR: Only the statues remain of
the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.
But remarkably, the tomb that inspired it
is itself in the British Museum.
It is called the Nereid Monument.
It is extraordinarily well preserved,
so Andrew can examine its features close up.
ANDREW: It has bands of sculpture around its podium.
It has a roof supported on an array of columns.
This is giving you a good idea of the kind of
style that you would expect to see in Alexander's tomb
in Alexandria.
NARRATOR: Piecing together the clues,
it is now possible to reconstruct
what Alexander's mausoleum may look like.
For centuries, Alexander the Great
lies in his glass coffin,
set within the sarcophagus of Nectanebo II
and is placed inside a giant mausoleum of Greek design,
the Soma.
According to ancient texts,
this monument stands at the heart of a sacred burial
ground for Ptolemaic kings
in the royal quarter of Alexandria,
a fitting final resting place for the great warrior king.
ANDREW: This man had become a god.
Alexander's tomb would have been an absolutely
spectacular monument, probably greater
even than one of the Seven Wonders,
the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.
NARRATOR: Alexander's mausoleum is one of the most spectacular
buildings in the ancient world
and becomes a place of holy pilgrimage for some of the most
important names in history.
ANDREW: A succession of notable Romans -- Julius Caesar,
Augustus Caesar, Hadrian.
Coming to worship at this shrine is the only place that
you could see a tomb of
an actual God in the Roman Empire.
NARRATOR: Alexander's tomb rivals the Seven Wonders
of the ancient world,
but it vanishes from history.
Could clues at an ancient temple in Alexandria
reveal its fate?
NARRATOR: Alicia Johnson is searching for clues
to why no trace of Alexander the Great's mausoleum,
the Soma, remains in modern Alexandria.
She heads to the ruins of the Serapeum,
an ancient temple in the center of the city.
ALICIA: While it might not look like
much right now, during the Ptolemaic time,
this was a fascinating and fabulous temple complex.
NARRATOR: In the west of the city, on a hill,
stands the most magnificent temple of Alexandria,
the Serapeum.
Inside, a statue of the Greek Egyptian hybrid god, Serapis,
promoted by Ptolemy I to unify his two peoples.
The cult of Serapis grows even stronger in the Roman era
but comes to a violent end
when this temple is destroyed in 391 CE.
What can this lost temple
reveal about Alexander's missing tomb?
Alicia thinks the sphinxes at
the temple's entrance hold the answer.
They were created with love and attention to detail,
because these monuments weren't just statues.
They were deities, they had power.
However, as you can see, a part of the sphinx is missing.
The nose was cut off in an attempt to remove the power
that was held within these monuments.
NARRATOR: Ancient Egyptians believe that the nose
is the source of the sculpture's power.
Cutting it off would cause the spirit inside to
stop breathing.
So to remove the power of one of these sphinxes by
cutting off their nose was an attack on the ancient
Egyptian religion.
It was a deliberate act of vandalism.
NARRATOR: Alicia unearths evidence
of the identity of the vandal,
the man who could also be responsible for the ultimate
fate of Alexander.
ALICIA: So what we have here is
a manuscript that dates back to the fifth century.
But the figure that's featured in
the manuscript is a man named Theophilus.
Theophilus is the Christian patriarch of Alexandria
at the end of the 4th century CE.
ALICIA: What we see here in this image
is the Theophilus standing on top
of a building that we can recognize as the Serapeum --
in his hand, holding the Christian Bible,
and stomping on the building.
It represents the complete destruction of the pagan
religion that pre-existed the incoming Christian ideology.
This image tells me that the Serapeum
was deliberately destroyed by competing religious forces.
NARRATOR: In 391 CE, Theophilus
orders Christians to mock pagan objects
in a parade through Alexandria.
A fight breaks out, but the Christians outnumber
the pagans and force them to seek refuge in the Serapeum.
Theophilus receives orders from Rome to pardon
the pagans and remove them from their hideout.
Then, his soldiers and some monks destroy the Serapeum
and other pagan buildings.
This was an incredibly significant moment in
world history, the destruction of the Serapeum,
and it starts to mark the descent of
the pagan religion in the transition into the new
Christian religion.
Considering Alexander the Great was likely deified,
it is not surprising that we can consider
the concept that maybe Alexander the Great's mausoleum
was destroyed
in addition to other pagan monuments.
NARRATOR: The triumph of Christianity
in the Roman Empire is devastating for pagan religions
across the ancient world.
The magnificent mausoleum of Alexander the Great
and his tomb and mummified body are unlikely to
have survived the catastrophe.
Alexander's holy tomb may have
been destroyed by the Christians,
but clues suggest his body might have survived.
Can startling new evidence prove that
his body is swapped for someone else?
NARRATOR: Alexander the Great, one of
history's most celebrated military commanders.
He dies at the age of just 32
and is buried in a grand mausoleum,
which vanishes from history.
It's thought his body is lost with his tomb.
But historian Andrew Chugg has another theory.
It involves a surprising name from history,
Saint Mark.
ANDREW: Saint Mark is the author of the gospel
according to Saint Mark in the New Testament.
He then goes to Egypt, where he becomes the first patriarch
in Egypt, the founder of Christianity in Egypt.
NARRATOR: Conservator Ferdinando Forlati
excavates Saint Mark's tomb in Venice in the 1960s.
He did a series of excavations, and in the course of
those excavations,
he discovers a huge block of what he initially thought was
Roman sculpture.
NARRATOR: The beautifully carved block depicts a lance
and a large shield with a star emblem in the center.
ANDREW: That's the emblem of Alexander's family.
We see that emblem on the funeral casket
of his father, Philip.
It's very much the emblem that we would expect to see on
the shield of Alexander the Great.
NARRATOR: It's a clue that makes Andrew suspect the tomb
of Saint Mark could contain the lost body of Alexander.
And he has more evidence for this startling theory.
Saint Mark dies in Alexandria in 68 CE,
but his tomb is not mentioned in
ancient literature until centuries after his death.
This is around the same time
Alexander disappears from the historical record.
And this coincidence extends to
the location of the tomb of Saint Mark.
ANDREW: There's a medieval map, which says that the body of
Saint Mark was discovered just inside the eastern gate of
the medieval city.
That's a highly significant location, because it
appears to have been the central crossroads.
NARRATOR: The central crossroads is where Alexander's
famous mausoleum is said to have been.
That means there's a coincidence in place
as well as the coincidence in time.
NARRATOR: The chance discovery of Saint Mark in
the location of Alexander's mausoleum happens at
a suspicious time.
it's just when the worship of non-Christian gods
is banned in Egypt and across the Roman Empire.
Andrew believes the body of Alexander
the Great is purposefully re-identified.
There are probably a couple of strong reasons
for relabeling the body of Alexander as Saint Mark.
The first of them is that he was a god
of the Greco-Roman pantheon,
and that was embarrassing when paganism had
just been made illegal.
The Christians also needed a great icon to be a focus for
the worship of Christianity in Alexandria,
and it seems they didn't have the body of Saint Mark,
because it had reputedly been burnt in the 1st century AD.
NARRATOR: Andrew suspects Alexander lies in
the tomb of Saint Mark for 300 years,
until he is taken to Venice in 828 CE,
and the Basilica di San Marco, where he lies to this day.
Experts still search for the lost tomb
of Alexander the Great.
It is one of history's most enduring mysteries.
He is buried first in Memphis before his body
is moved to the capital city of his empire, Alexandria.
He is later reburied in the Soma,
a mausoleum comparable in size and grandeur
to the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.
Though his tomb vanishes from history,
his body may survive.