← Back to the map 19th-century reconstruction drawing of Alexander the Great's funeral catafalque, based on Diodorus's description, en route to his tomb in Alexandria

19th-century reconstruction drawing of Alexander the Great's funeral catafalque, based on Diodorus's description, en route to his tomb in Alexandria

19th-century engraving · Wikimedia Commons

Tomb of Alexander the Great

Soma

TombAegyptus · Alexandria, EgyptBuilt 215 BCE

About

Ptolemy IV built this mausoleum around 215 BCE to hold Alexander's body alongside the Ptolemaic kings. Julius Caesar wept before the glass coffin in 48 BCE, and Augustus broke off part of the mummy's nose reaching in to touch its crown in 30 BCE. Caligula later took its breastplate to wear at gladiator shows. In 117 CE the tomb still stood where the Canopic Way crossed the Street of the Soma, a required stop for visiting emperors.

What happened here

Roman burial is a family matter conducted in public. The dead are carried out of town, cremated or laid in the ground, and mourned with formal noise; the funeral of anyone important is a procession with masks of the ancestors carried by hired men. The tomb that follows is designed to be read by strangers on the road: name, age, offices, sometimes a trade shown in relief, often a line addressed directly to the passer-by. Ordinary people appear here as they nowhere else — a baker with his ovens carved on the front, a freedman naming the woman he could finally marry, a child's age given in days. Anniversaries bring the family back with food and wine.