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Nearly everything related to Alexander's burial has become the subject of controversy. We have, however, to accept as reliable the story of Diodorus Siculus that the body was embalmed and that after numerous vicissitudes and a delay of two years, the funeral convoy started on the long journey to Egypt. Philip Arrhidaeus, the feeble minded son of Philip II of Macedonia, who had been chosen by the Macedonian army at Babylon as the successor of Alexander, was put in charge of all the arrangements3.
Was the intended destination the oasis of Siwah, where the oracle of Ammon had confirmed, some years earlier, his divine Lineage? Or was this a trick of Ptolemy Lagos (337-283), who wanted the body of the conqueror to be buried in Alexandria, in order to fulfill the prophecy of Aristander, Alexander's favourite soothsayer, who had predicted "that the country in which his body was buried would be the most prosperous in the world"?
It is difficult to judge. It is, however, reported that when the funeral procession reached Syria, an army was sent by Perdicas to intercept the precious remains and divert the convoy to Aigai in Macedonia.
A battle took place and it is quite possible that the sarcophagus of white pentelic marble found at Sidon in 1886 and originally attributed to Alexander, belonged to one of the dignitaries killed in the engagement. It perhaps contained the body of Ptolemon, who was sent by Perdicas at the head of an army to take the body and who died in the engagement. This sarcophagus is now exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Constantinople.
Finally, according to Diodorus, the funeral carriage, a wheeled monument on which the body of the hero was laid, was pulled all the way to Alexandria via Memphis.
An attempt to reconstruct the procession in drawings, based on Diodorus account, was made in the middle of the 18th century by the French Compte de Caylus4.
His life and deeds, as well as his death and burial, became a legend for future generations, far beyond the lands he had conquered. He was remembered in legend1 from Iceland to China and is still invoked as their ancestor or patron by tribesmen in Afghanistan. His life and deeds, as well as his death and burial, became a legend for future generations, far beyond the lands he had conquered. He was remembered in legend1 from Iceland to China and is still invoked as their ancestor or patron by tribesmen in Afghanistan.
Strabo, Plutarch, Pausanias and other ancient authors mention that it was in Alexandria that Alexander's body was deposited in a Mausoleum called the Soma or Sema5, meaning a body or burial in Greek. A gold sarcophagus and a grandiose building with a great display of wealth were appropriate to receive the remains of a deified hero, who in his lifetime had united the Greek and the Oriental worlds.
Can we locate the Soma on a map of Ancient Alexandria? Some archaeologists suggest its location at the intersection of the Horreya (Canopic) and Nabi Daniel streets - ancient streets L1 and R5, according to el Falaki's plan of the city6. It must be stressed, however, that the topography of Ptolemaic and Roman Alexandria is even nowadays very incompletely known. The modern town built in the early 19th century by Mohammed Ali coincides with the antique city, which lies beneath it. Until 1865, when Mahmoud Bey el Falaki7 was ordered by the Khedive Ismail to draw a plan of the ancient city (to comply with a request of Napoleon III), no topography was known of the city of the Ptolemies8 and no reliable archaeological excavation had ever been carried out. The map was completed in 1866, and it also showed the remains of the massive city fortifications. These walls finally disappeared completely with the urbanization work that started after 1882.
Later, sporadic excavations by Neroutsos, Botti, Hogarth, Noack, Breccia and others revealed sections of the ancient streets and remains of buildings, but no methodical excavations were carried out in the centre of the town. These had to wait until 1960, when the Polish excavations began9. These excavations were concentrated in and around the mound of Kom el Dick. They unearthed the Greek and Roman residential quarter at the ancient street R4, and public quarter further to the East with Roman theatre, so called Theatre street, row of public auditoria, imperial bath, aqueduct, large cistern (castellon), two Arab necropolis on the upper levels (7th-13th century), early Islamic houses, workshops etc10. However, the modern plans on the topography of Ancient Alexandria still greatly rely on the Falaki plan.
Mahmoud el Falaki located the tomb of Alexander the Great in the center of the city, at the intersection of the Via Canopica (Horreya Av.) and the ancient street R5, not far from the Mosque of Nabi Daniel. Since then the tomb of Alexander the Great has been located on the same place by some other scholars such as Neroutsos, Kiepert and Sieglin. However, the modern excavations conducted around the Mosque and its vicinity excluded the possibility of existence of the Ptolemaic Necropolis in this area11.
Adriani suggested the location of the Soma in the north-eastern part of the ancient city, which lies much closer to the Royal Quarter.
The remains of an ancient thumulus tomb made of alabaster, situated at the present Latin Cemetery, is at least a relative of Macedonian chamber tombs, and marks the area of Ptolemaic Cemetery of the most upper class, or even royal12.
Photos: (top) Illustration of the funeral cart; (middle) 18th century illustration of the funeral cart of Alexander; (bottom) the catafalque which bore the body of the conqueror to the city he had founded - imagined by Carl Otfried Muller.
Notes:
3. Diodorus Siculus, XVIII, 26, 27, 28.
4. Le Compte de Caylus. Sur le char qui porta le corps d'Alexandre. Histoire de l'Academie Royale. (1978).
5. ÓÞìá according to Strabo, Zenobius, Sozomenou, Óþìá according to the Pseudo Callisthenes.
6. Based on Strabo's description that the Soma was part of "The Palaces", Fraser suggests that it may lay near the coast in the Eastern part of the city P.M. Fraser.
7. Mahmoud el Falaki, Mémoire sur l'anciénne Alexandrie, Copenhaguen, (1872).
8. Except for the study undertaken by the French scientists of Bonaparte's expedition. Gratien Le Père, "Mémoire sur la ville d'Alex." Déscription de l'Egypte, t. 18, pp. 183-490.
9. K. Michalowski, " Rapport sur la prospection du terrain dans la région de Nabi Danial", Bull de la Faculté des lettres de l'Université d'Alexandrie, XII, (1958), pp. 37-39. L. Dabrowski, Polish Research on Ancient Alexandria (in Polish) Meander, 11, (1958), pp. 401-405. L. Dabrowski, "Resumé des recherches archaeologiques faites autour du Fort Kom el-Dikka en Alexandrie". Univ. d'Alex., Bull. Fac. Lettres 14, (1960), pp. 39-49 (with plans). See also J. Lipinska in Etudes et Travaux 3, [Trav. Cent. d'Arch. méd., Warsaw (1966)], pp. 182-199, and W. Kubiak, BSAA 42, (1967), pp. 47-80. M. Rodziewicz, A Brief Record of the Excavations at Kom el-Dikka in Alexandria (1960-1980) in: BSAA 44, Alexandrie 1991, pp. 1-70.
10. See: M. Rodziewicz: "Un quartier d'habitation gréco-romain à Kom el Dikka", ET IX, 1976 pp. 169-210: M. Rodziewicz, "Les habitations Romaines tardives d'Alexandrie à la lumière des fouilles polonaises à Kom el-Dikka". (Alexandrie III), Varsovie 1984; M. Rodiewicz, "La stratigraphie de l'antique Alexandrie à la lumière des fouilles de Kom el-Dikka". ET XIV, 1990, p. 146 ff, fig.2.
11. For the location of the digging in the area prior the Polish Excavations (1960 present) see: A. Adriani, Reportorio d'Arte dell'Egitto Greco-Romano. Serie C. Palermo (1963) No. 45, fig. E, pl. 22, fig. 77 (plan of the excavation located just beside the eastern wall of Nabi Danial Mosque). For more recent bibliography of the subject see: M. Rodziewicz, Le debat sur la topographie de la ville antique. Alexandrie entre deux mondes, ROMM 46, 4e trimestre (1987), pp. 38-48; M. Rodziewicz, Reports on excavations at Kom el-Dikka: 1960-1980, 1980-1981, 1982, 1983-1984 in BSAA 44, pp. 1-118. In this same volume: Rodziewicz-Ahmed Abdel Fatah, Recent discoveries in the Royal Quarter of Alexandria, BSAA 44, pp. 131-150; Rodziewicz-Daoud Abde Daoud. Investigation of a trench near the Via Canopica in Alexandria, BSAA 44, pp. 151-168. See also M. Rodziewicz, Alexandrie III, op. cit. Varsovie (1984).
12. See Adriani, Repertorio, op. cit. p. 242 ff.; N. Bonacasa, Un inedito di Achille Adriani sulla tomba di Alessandro. Studi Miscellanei 28, Roma (1991), p. 3 ff