for over 1 000 years queen cleopatra's tomb has eluded every expert in the field of archaeology
the list of places that it could be are small but despite this no one has managed to pinpoint
its exact whereabouts but some people today think that they are close is it underneath
a mysterious temple or is it underwater an overview of the downfall of cleopatra
is essential to understand why the tomb is so interesting and why it is lost
queen cleopatra's crushing final days
in 30 bc queen cleopatra's egyptian state has been devastated by roman emperor octavian her beloved
husband the rebel roman general marc anthony lies dying at her feet she knows that escape
is impossible she had planned to flee to some far away land but her navy has already been destroyed
with nowhere else to turn cleopatra meets with octavian he reveals that he wants to keep her
alive but parade her as a defeated prisoner in rome a humiliating act for the queen who has
fought so hard for her land before the journey can begin cleopatra decides to take her own life
from this point onward history is unclear she may have allowed a venomous snake to bite her
or she may have stabbed herself with a poisoned hairpin octavian is furious over cleopatra suicide
he hunts down her son and murders him but he does treat cleopatra's corpse with respect he allows
her to rest in her tomb alongside marc anthony in the 2000 years since the two lovers were buried
the tomb's location has been lost to history some archaeologists think that its discovery
could come any day now others think that the odds of finding it are next to impossible here's why
tapocyrus magna could contain the tomb the ancient city of tapacyrus magna was created by cleopatra's
ancestor pharaoh ptolemy ii philadelphias this city was of extreme religious importance to the
egyptians in fact the name tapos cyrus magna literally means the great tomb of osiris a
number of events such as war meant that for a long time exploring this ancient city was impossible
then in the early 19th century the ottoman empire took over the region and decided to cover the
ancient ruins with a modern city but since the late 1900s archaeologists have been working on
the site almost continuously in the last 25 years they've discovered artifacts that could indicate
that cleopatra's tomb is hidden within the region at first in the late 2000s an expedition led by
dr zahi hawas who was the secretary general of egypt's supreme council of antiquities
began discovering more and more evidence linking the site to cleopatra
at first there were a range of royal statues which at some point had been beheaded
then they discovered a collection of head sculptures all of which were of queen cleopatra
next came the discovery of dozens of coins which all had cleopatra's face engraved upon them
later the archaeologists managed to gain entrance to a temple which featured carvings
of two lovers embracing one another who could potentially be anthony and cleopatra
another discovery of interest within the temple was a fragment of ceramic that appeared to be of
the same shape as anthony's cleft chin which the archaeologists believe mean that it could be the
death mask of anthony then around this temple the team discovered the mummies of ten nobles
these nobles likely wanted to be buried near a member of egyptian royalty
and then radar imaging showed that the temple has three passageways beneath it which may lead to
cleopatra's tomb in 2020 the archaeologists made an incredible discovery they found a tomb within
tap osiris-magna that contained two mummies next to one another this chamber had not been
unsealed in over 2000 years but water damage had seeped into the tomb badly damaging the remains
still the archaeologists could tell that the mummies had originally been covered in gold leaf
which was only done to high status people and an x-ray proved that one of the mummies was male
and the other female but sadly these mummies turned out not to be antony and cleopatra
instead they were high-ranking officials some archaeologists believe that they were priests
and in recent years hawas the former general secretary of the supreme council of antiquities
walked back his previous comments stating that antony and cleopatra's tomb was on the
verge of discovery within the temple of tapos cyrus magna in fact he stated that if anything
cleopatra would be likely to be buried anywhere else specifically he stated this the egyptians
never buried inside a temple the temples were for worship and this was for the goddess isis
so it's unlikely that cleopatra was buried there still much of tapacyrus magna remains buried away
and anthony and cleopatra's death occurred as egypt became a roman state
could the unusual rules not have applied due to the changing and mixing of societies most
of tapasirus magna still needs to be excavated including the passageways beneath the temple
cleopatra's tomb may lie at the bottom of the sea if tampa cyrus magna is not the location of
cleopatra's tomb then the most likely possibility is that it is somewhere within the city that she
called home alexandria one major setback here is the fact that much of alexandria that dates
back to the egyptian period is now underwater one important site of archaeological interest that is
known to be underwater is cleopatra's royal palace this now lies at the bottom of alexandria's harbor
and while the mediterranean sea has devastated many of the priceless artifacts below
some important discoveries have been made one example is a nine ton red granite pylon which a
giant crane pulled out of the water in 2009 this was once a part of cleopatra's palace
and even though the palace and possibly the tomb are now underwater a significant
number of other finds have taken place in fact when the granite pylon was discovered in 2009
it joined around 6 000 other artifacts that had been underwater for over 1 000 years
in recent years not much has been found relating to cleopatra but even if the tomb
is not there the palace itself could provide some major clues as to where the tomb truly is
luckily a new project could speed up the discovery and recovery of artifacts from the seabed
in 2021 alexandria university announced the new initiative to excavate the seabed that
contains cleopatra's palace this process will involve specialists examining the seabed with
state-of-the-art technology to identify artifacts of interest then divers will swim down and attempt
to locate the artifacts that have been discovered finally the recovered artifacts will be restored
even though this is a massive acceleration of the excavation of cleopatra's palace realistically
it will take years to identify any artifact that points to cleopatra's tomb being located beneath
the harbor of alexandria or elsewhere luckily the egyptian government does appear to be focused upon
making the palace and other surrounding ruins accessible to the masses for instance since 2015
the ministry of antiquities has been working on building a 150 million dollar underwater museum
that will allow people to view cleopatra's palace this means that if cleopatra's tomb is discovered
within the underwater ruins of alexandria then one day it could become a museum exhibit itself
with tourists walking through glass tunnels that lead inside the tomb
what the discovery could answer if cleopatra's tomb is discovered
whether it's in tapas cyrus magna the sea bed of alexandria's harbor or elsewhere then it
will certainly answer a number of questions that have been lost to history for instance
some historians believe that cleopatra's lover mark anthony was cremated before being entombed
others say that he was mummified mark anthony's remains are almost certainly inside the tomb and
only their discovery will reveal if the remains were treated in an egyptian way
cleopatra's corpse could also reveal more information regarding her death many people
believe that she died by suicide but as to whether this was through a snakebite or an implement such
as a hairpin is debated her mummified corpse will likely point to which method of suicide she chose
or it could lead to a major revision of history some historians have gone as far as to state that
she may have been killed by emperor octavian with the suicide story being used to cover up this fact
if cleopatra's mummy features a large stab wound then it will show that this was the case
and most intriguingly a discovery of cleopatra's remains could indicate whether she was genetically
greek or egyptian historians currently believe that cleopatra's ancestry was primarily greek
but cranial scans of her half-sister skull have suggested that the family may have had
an african origin all along if cleopatra's skill follows a similar pattern that would highlight
that she was indeed genetically african and of course the tomb could be filled with treasures
it's likely that the tomb was never robbed potentially the discovery could reveal artifacts
that make the content of tootin commons crypt look like trash perhaps those loyal to cleopatra
buried her with as much wealth as possible in an attempt to stop octavian from plundering it
for now the answers to these questions are unknown and the search for cleopatra's tomb continues
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