The long-lost tombs of Cleopatra VII and Marc Antony from 30 BC, is one of the great unsolved mysteries and have yet to be found anywhere near Alexandria, Egypt. Cleopatra was the last monarch of the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty — founded by Alexander the Great around 300 BC — who took her own life after the Romans captured Egypt in 30 BC. She did so by having a venomous snake called an asp bite her, according to ancient writers. She was buried with Antony in a mausoleum (a large tomb), ancient writers claimed. Their tombs have been lost for more than 2,000 years. According to historians Suetonius and Plutarch, the Roman leader Octavian (later renamed Augustus) allowed their burial together after he defeated them.
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| Cleopatra and her son Caesarion at the Temple of Dendera. Image credit: Wikipedia |
Archaeologists feared that Cleopatra, who they believe was buried in Alexandria, might have been lost in the 365 AD tsunami, which plunged half of Alexandria under the ocean. However, recent discovery have claimed that archaeologists are on the verge of discovering this lost tomb at a site called "Taposiris Magna," a sprawling temple of about seven square kilometres located some 50km west of the Mediterranean city of Alexandria that is dedicated to the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis.
A team led by Kathleen Martinez, for the past 15 years, has been excavating the site and two mummies of high-status individuals who lived during Cleopatra's time have been found in Taposiris Magna, including piles of coins minted during her reign. Researchers say that the “sensational” find proves that the necropolis was a favored location for royal officials of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a line that ended with Cleopatra, Marc Anthony, and their son, Caesarion.
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| 2 Mysterious Mummies discovered by Kathleen Martinez' team in Taposiris Magna. Image credit: theguardian.com |
Although the burial chamber had been undisturbed for 2,000 years, the mummies are in a poor state of preservation because water had seeped through.
The mysterious mummies have been X-rayed, establishing that they are male and female. One suggestion is they were priests who played a key role in maintaining the pharaohs’ power. One bears an image of a scarab, symbolising rebirth, painted in gold leaf.
Is this the lost tomb of Cleopatra?
However, Zahi Hawass, the former Egyptian minister of the State for Antiquities said that there is no evidence at all that Cleopatra's tomb could be in [Taposiris Magna]. Hawass said that he worked with Martinez for more than 10 years at the site and found no evidence that Cleopatra and Antony were buried there.
According to Wikipedia, in January 2019, Zahi Hawass denied the news in an article in the newspaper Al-Ahram, affirming that the thesis that the tombs were in Taposiris Magna was not his but that of Kathleen MartÃnez, and that he did not believe MartÃnez's hypothesis because "the Egyptians never buried inside a temple", given that "the temples were for worshiping, and this was for the goddess Isis. It is therefore unlikely that Cleopatra was buried there." "I believe now that Cleopatra was buried in her tomb that she built next to her palace and it is under the water," Hawass said. "Her tomb will never be found."
Perhaps these two individuals in Taposiris Magna had interacted with Cleopatra herself, archaeologists suggest.
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