The former Roman triumvir Mark Antony and Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII were buried together after their deaths in 30 BC; their tomb has not been discovered, and is assumed to be located in Alexandria, Egypt.
According to historians Suetonius and Plutarch, the Roman leader Octavian permitted their burial together after he had defeated them. Their surviving children were taken to Rome, to be raised as Roman citizens. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities theorizes that it is within or near a temple of Taposiris Magna, southwest of Alexandria.
Historical sources Throughout history many references to the tomb of Antony and Cleopatra have been made.
Primary source location
Plutarch places the tomb near a Temple of Isis., 74:1 Plutarch, 76:2,82:2 and Cassius Dio, Book LI 11:5 describe Cleopatra VII moving between her palace and the tomb in her last days. Strabo, Book XVII 9 and John of Nikiû, Book LXVII 3-4 place her palace on the island of Antirhodos. Plutarch, 86:4 and Suetonius, Life of Augustus 17:4 say that Augustus completed the unfinished tomb and buried Cleopatra VII and Marc Antony together in regal fashion. Cassius Dio mentions about the mausoleum that "the upper part of it next to the roof was not yet fully completed", Book LI 10:8 at the time of Cleopatra's death and that Cleopatra and Anthony "were both embalmed in the same fashion and buried in the same tomb"., Book LI 15:1
Archaeologist Franck Goddio has spent 25 years performing a geophysical survey of the bay of Alexandria, revealing many Ptolemaic structures which reside under at least 16 feet of water, some under another 16 feet or more of sediment. He has identified the submerged island of Antirhodos along with remains of a palace that contains artifacts from the reign of Cleopatra VII and an Isis temple. Currently, only this temple of Isis has been located in Alexandria.
Goddio assumes Cleopatra VII's mausoleum to be located on the submerged Antirhodos Island between the palace and the Isis temple.
In fiction Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra
William Shakespeare, inspired by Plutarch, briefly alludes to this common entombment in the voice of his character Caesar (Octavian), in the last verses of his play Antony and Cleopatra (Act V, scene II):, p. 368, the last page of the play, facsimile by SCETI – University of Pennsylvania; original doc. Horace Howard Furness Memorial (Shakespeare) Library. Folio PR2751 .A1.
Exploration and discovery efforts Many searches for the tomb of Antony and Cleopatra have taken place.
Taposiris Magna excavation
Excavations aimed at finding Cleopatra's tomb has been carried out by Kathleen Martínez in Taposiris Magna, a temple to Osiris, located west of Alexandria, Egypt. Martinez believes that Cleopatra was originally buried by Octavian in Alexandria, as historical records suggest, but "after the mummification process was complete, the priests at Taposiris Magna buried the bodies of Cleopatra and Mark Antony in a different place without the approval of the Romans". For her reasoning that the resting place lays in Taposiris Magna, Martinez cites its dedication to Osiris:
The finding from late 2000s include ten mummies in 27 tombs of Egyptian nobles, as well as coins bearing images of Cleopatra and carvings showing the two people in an embrace. So far, the tomb itself remains elusive, but the temple excavations continue, with additional sites below the surface identified using ground-penetrating radar in 2011.
In January 2019, controversy arose over the possibility that the discovery of the tombs was imminent, attributed to remarks by Zahi Hawass at a conference at the University of Palermo. The Egyptologist 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 Martínez, and that "the temples were for worshiping, and this was for the goddess Isis. It is therefore unlikely that Cleopatra was buried there"; he also claimed that he did not believe Martínez's hypothesis because "the Egyptians never buried inside a temple". The last statement is contradicted by the fact that burials of some pharaohs - for example rulers of 21st and 22nd Dynasty buried in Tanis, and of ephemeral king Harsiese - were indeed located inside a temple's enclosure or in its close vicinity.
In early November 2022 the team of archaeologists led by Martínez identified a long tunnel in the area of the temple of Taposiris Magna, west of Alexandria, that could lead to Cleopatra's tomb.
The search seeks to find Antony's mummy as well, despite Plutarch's observation that Antony was cremated: "After Cleopatra had heard this, in the first place, she begged Octavian that she might be permitted to pour libations for Antony; and when the request was granted, she had herself carried to the tomb, and embracing the urn which held his ashes."
Tomb contents
It is likely that the tomb contains nothing besides human remains.
When Octavian approached Alexandria, Cleopatra VII retreated to her tomb:
Octavian had no intention of leaving it there:
Romans eventually gained access to the tomb (Plutarch,, 79:1 Cassius Dio),, Book LI 11:4 and Octavian obtained the treasure:
See also Early life of Cleopatra Reign of Cleopatra Death of Cleopatra
References