The Search for Cleopatra's Tomb
Ancient sources place Cleopatra’s tomb in Alexandria, now submerged beneath the sea, while excavations at Taposiris Magna offer an alternative.
Introduction
The location of the joint tomb of Cleopatra VII and Marcus Antonius, attested by multiple ancient literary sources as having been constructed in Alexandria following their deaths in 30 BCE, constitutes one of the most prominent unresolved questions in Classical archaeology. Despite consistent ancient testimony placing the burial in Alexandria's royal quarter, the tomb has never been identified — a consequence of the progressive seismic subsidence and submersion of Ptolemaic Alexandria, two millennia of urban redevelopment, and the practical infeasibility of excavation beneath a modern working harbor. Recent excavations at the Taposiris Magna temple complex, approximately 50 km west of Alexandria, have proposed an alternative hypothesis that remains under active investigation.