The quest to find Cleopatra’s lost tomb: These are the latest theories to where the last queen of Egypt could be buried

The last of the Egyptian pharaohs and the Ptolemaic Dynasty, Cleopatra VII, died by her own hand in 30 B.C., according to ancient historians. Reportedly she had a venomous asp bite her in the chest, the Roman historian Plutarch said that she used a vial of poison she had hidden in her hair.

The drastic decision was taken in order to avoid becoming a trophy of war for Octavian who had defeated her forces and those of her lover Mark Anthony. He himself took his own life shortly before her when he was falsely informed that she was dead.

Out of respect for his slain foes, Octavian ordered that the two to be buried together in Cleopatra’s mausoleum, long believed to be in Alexandria. However, no one today knowns for sure where exactly that is, as the Mediterranean coast of Egypt was struck by a devastating earthquake and tsunami in 365 A.D., which plunged the royal quarter of Alexandria under the sea.

The quest to find Cleopatra’s lost tomb

According to Plutarch, Cleopatra’s mausoleum was located in Alexandria’s royal quarters near a temple to Isis, her patron goddess. Archaeologists diving in the waters off Alexandria rediscovered the remains of the sunken royal quarter in the 1990s.

While Franck Goddio, an underwater archaeologist, has mapped a number of important areas of the sunken royal quarter and located a temple dedicated to Isis, he told History that he has yet to find evidence of Cleopatra’s mausoleum.

However, there are others that believe that Cleopatra’s tomb isn’t in Alexandria, but instead located around 30 miles west along the coast in Taposiris Magna, at another temple dedicated to Isis. Since 2005, criminal lawyer-turned-archaeologist, National Geographic Explorer Kathleen Martínez, has been excavating at a site discounted by many others.

They have been finding some interesting artifacts and structures. These include a partially flooded tunnel roughly 40 feet underground that runs for 4,300 feet straight toward the ocean from the temple. Then last year, her team announced that they had also located the ruins of a sunken port off the coast.

She discussed her most recent discover in a National Geographic documentary special Cleopatra’s Final Secret.

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