I keep coming back to this epic series of yesteryear. All hail Fall of Civilizations, Naunton 🤠, Thersites, ERE channel,, Nova Historia and to all others who grant us all sweet Seleucid dreams and wondrous Alexandrian nights.
An extraordinary talk and presentation, Chris. Being a Greek myself, my greatest passion and I could say, obsession, has always been Alexander the Great and Cleopatra. It's a crying shame that Alexander should have met such grievious fate - he certainly never deserved such treatment 😢. I truly believe that not enough archeologists are doing their utmost to locate Alexander, and the delay is only adding to the daily transformation of the country of Egypt, making it an arduous if not impossible task to uncover anything!!!
He was buried under St. Mark's cathedral. The crusaders thought they took St. Mark's remains to Venice when they sacked Alexandria, but the Coptic Church has always insisted St. Mark is still safely interred under the altar. So what body did the crusaders take? Likely that of Alexander himself. It makes sense. St. Mark's Cathedral was built over the remains of a large pagan temple that had been located in the center of old Alexandria.
Thank you so much for these wonderful lectures. Thanks to the internet, I can listen to these in outback Queensland, Australia and you manage to give so much information, I truly feel I have seen it all myself. I very much appreciate the time and effort you and your partner put in. Bless 😊👌
Chris, I attended this lecture. I got Alexander the Great on DVD original and the re-make with Colin Farrell in, it's great to see what was before Cleopatra. Thanks again for this.
Quite a while back you did a talk at the British Museum. Unfortunately you ran out of time and didn't get to discuss Alexander's tomb (I bought your book because of him). So I'm so happy that you've done this. I love it. Thank you!
Greetings from Egypt 🇪🇬 Thank you Chris for that amazing lecture as always. I love that story of how can Nectnepo II can be the biological father of Alexander, it's so charming and exciting. Don't get me wrong I don't mean to take Alexander away from being Macadonian, however, the story itself is such a good , especially that Nectnepo was the last native Ruler of Egypt after 3000 years of Ancient Egyptian dynasties, and Egypt had to wait for another 2300 years to have another native ruler in 1953 common era " Mohamed Naguib " - Also because Alexander was possibly buried temporarily in Nectnepo's sarcophagus, Omg there is too much things connected to this story. This could make an amazing movie 🎬 🎞 , I day dreamed about it the other Day while being stuck in traffic in my car, imagine Nectnepo being that last son of Amun ever, and wants to pass his godly blood to the one person that will unite the whole 🌎 world.
hi Ahmed, thanks for your kind comments! Like you, I love the story of Nectanebo as Alexander's father even if we know it's jus a story. I like the idea that even though Alexander was Macedonian, as was his ultimate successor Ptolemy Soter, they both wanted to have this connection to Egypt. It shows how important the country and its culture was!
@@ChristopherNaunton Thank you Chris for replying to me. We like Alexander and the Ptolemies , because they embraced the Egyptian culture and their time was some sort of a revival. Lastly as I was suggesting to hear more from you about Alexander's incredible trip into Siwa Oasis , There is another great "man" who had an incredible journey in Egypt too , that "man" is Jesus Christ himself ! , for some reason the holy family's trip in Egypt is not an interest for Egyptologists who are usually not studying anything after Cleopatra (hahaha ) , however I believe some real archeology should be done on this , investigating some of these sites now documented by the Coptic christians What an eventful 50 years though ; Cleopatra - Ptolemy 13 - Julies Ceasar - Arsenoe - Mark Antony - Jesus christ !! all having their own adventures in Egypt ! Sorry for being too talkative - Thank you for your work :)))
@@ahmednour1610 Interesting thoughts thanks Ahmed! As you may know, uncovering archaeological evidence for the Biblical narrative was a preoccupation of archaeologists particularly in the 19th century (Although usually this Old rather than New Testament narrative). I think the main reason it might *seem* archaeologists are not as interested any more is that very little verifiable archaeological evidence for the story has been found, while lots of evidence of other kinds has been found and has kept archaeologists very busy! Nonetheless there is a very active debate about the extent to which evidence for the stories in the Bible might be found in Egypt and elsewhere. See e.g. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GBWWO8dCeY0.html
@@ChristopherNaunton thank you Chris again for this knowledge, I watched the whole lecture. Coincidentally, I am from this exact area in Egypt ( modern Ismailia province) , my family's house is in Al Balah neighbourhood in Ismailia City ( named after Al Balah old lakes near-by) Can't wait for your next lecture, I will try my best to attend online this time. Good luck 👍
There’s is a couple of notes on the Alexander romance, throughout most of history it was actually the most widely circulated belief about Alexander, this was also supported by Philip constantly issuing doubts about whether Alexander was really his son. I wonder if Alexander and imhoteps body could’ve been used as medicine or ship fuel for Europeans as has happened to countless mummies in the past century and a half.
Alexander's Tomb would've been the absolute highlight of every roman soldier's pilgrimage to Egypt, look what the romans did to the remnants of Troy. They made the whole mound an amusement park with reenactments of the battle for Troy and the fight between Hector and Achilles. I wouldn't expect any less for Alexander's Tomb. Every decent Centurion or Legat of the roman legion would've considered it his duty to visit it. One of the closest buildings to the last resting place of Alexander the great would've been a roman theatre and a latrine... I think Kom el Dikka could only be a stonethrow away. Add the importance of Alexander's body as justification for the Ptolemaic dynasty rule over Egypt and every plolemaic regent has his own best interest in mind to put the Tomb at the centre stage of the city, a location every visitor of Alexandria woul've had to pass by at least once. You'd put the tomb at or near the crossing of Kanopic way and the street connecting inner and outer harbour.
What was located at the center of Alexandria in the 7th century when the Muslims invaded? St. Mark's cathedral, which had been built over the ruins of a large pagan temple. Alexander's remains are likely interred in st. Mark's cathedral in Venice. The crusaders thought they took St. Mark himself when they sacked Alexandria, but the Coptic Church has always insisted St. Mark is safely under the altar. What body did the crusader's take? Yup.
Yes it does seem hardly possible that the tomb - memorial location wouldn't have been written about countless times, and as you say frequently visited, and there wouldn't be any uncertainty about it now... However of course apparently that didn't happen... so hard to understand why not….
Thanks, Chris, for this fascinating and informative talk. I think if there is one city from the past that I could visit it would be Hellenistic Alexandria. You didn't mention Ptolemy X melting down the gold sarcophagus of Alexander and replacing it with glass, do you think this really happened? Will be looking out for future lectures of yours
Glad you enjoyed it! I didn't mention the gold / glass, you're right, and perhaps I should have done. It doesn't seem very likely to me - 'gold' is possible (gilded wood, or even solid gold) but glass / crystal seems very unlikely. Perhaps something translucent - Egyptian alabaster? That would certainly be possible...
Thx Chris for intresting lecture! By the way, is there any new news about new exploration due Scan pyramid project? Any plan to investigate that big void they found two years ago? Thx!
Assassins creed origins brought me here. For people who would like to walk around a reimagining of Alexandria and Alexander’s tomb I highly recommend it. Just for fun
Well, in fact, getting interested led to a fully-fledged university-funded outreach project - Playing in the Past - in which we discussed how accurate the game is at a series of online events. More details here: playing-in-the-past.com/
Great video, well done. Thank you. I have kind of a unrelated question, is it fair to assume, that the mints of currency were opened as Alexander progressed his conquest? For instance, as an example, the Side mint in Asia Minor, would have been opened as he conquered this, followed by Alexandria, and so fourth to lets say for example babylon.. I cannot find any dating on his mints.
Hi Ben, You're right, the claim has been made but as far as I'm concerned there is very little evidence for it and the claimant - a Greek archaeologist - seemed to want to ignore the absence of evidence and also began making further claims that she had been guided by a snake (if I remember correctly) which undermined any credibility her excavations might have had. Given there wasn't enough time to include everything on the subject, I thought this was one theory that could be left out!
@@ChristopherNaunton It could be left out. It could be not as well. We all know that only time will tell, if Professor Souvaltzi was right or not. Thank you for the great and in-depth videos.
Another great lecture, Chris! A question: What do you think the chances are that an early monotheistic religious group (either Christians or Muslims) would have destroyed or purposefully hidden Alexander’s corpse/tomb, in an effort to wipe out what they would likely see as a potentially sacrilegious pagan worship site? (It doesn’t sound like a far fetched notion to me- I wonder if people are afraid to suggest that to avoid offending religious people?)
Thanks Dan! Interesting question too. It's possible! Unfortunately Alexandria was the scene of much violence. Caracalla, son of the Roman Emperor Septemius Severus, visited in 215/6. but the city was under siege in 262-4, and was sacked by Diocletian in 298. The tomb may at least have been damaged during that time, and then the tsunami of 365 CE might have had an impact (and could have destroyed it completely). What you suggest is possible - and I'd want to check something like Catherine Nixey's book 'The darkening Age' for evidence of Christian vandalism in Alex - but there are plenty of other events that could have destroyed the tomb. Interesting thought nonetheless!
The book of Daniel makes reference to the coming of Alexander the Great and both Jews and Christians acknowledge this and would use any Alexander finding as a biblical proof of the bible. You are mistaken. Check your bias :-}
The Smithsonian Museum has been dumping "Boat Loads of Ancient Artifacts" into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean??? My History Teacher once told me, I always wondered what Zahi Hawass was hiding and WHY? By the way, Happy Birthday AH "The Great" being 1 of Berlin's streets is named after ALEXANDER III
Okay we need to acknowledge that if you showed up at a Car Boot Sale with this, @27:19, claiming that its a genuine Egyptian artifact, you would get laughed at! For a start I would be asking why Mister Tickle is dressed as Pharaoh? Doh!
loved the lecture, but i have a really peculiar question. Is there any correlation between 2+3 and alexanders tomb? Trying to solve a riddle with 2 clues which are, whats 2+3 and what happened to alexanders tomb!
My optimism doesn't extend to Alexander's tomb. Alexandria was home to such strife over the centuries; especially when considering the modern city's destructive nature.
Yes, Evaristo Breccia excavated what might have been a tomb beneath the mosque but found nothing to identify it with Alexander. And the location isn't quite in the 'centre' of the ancient city. I'll probably return to this in a forthcoming talk on 'Alexandria: Found & lost' in August this year (2023) - see chrisnaunton.com/online-lectures/
I'm absolutely confident that the tomb of alexander was found long time ago and his remains were tracked as well. Search "project Alexandria", by Stephan A.Scwarz. He also wrote a book with the same name.
Thanks for this, I've just looked up the project but can't see any good reason to change my own thoughts which are - in line with the views of most archaeologists and historians I think - that the tomb has not been located / identified yet. But it's interesting to know that are alternatives ideas and methods out there.
Have you looked at the archaeological findings at Massada? They found roman shield with the remains....the shields were from Caesars 10th who's mascot was the bull.
I realy ever use subtitles I cant read these subtitles there either to quick to read or lettering to small to read i prefere to read at my own pace like a stationary page I'm am neither teacher student scholer or expert or archaeologist when it comes to ancient histories but I find it intresting just the same to watch these downloads
The sections on the possible Memphite tomb of Alexander draw on Andrew Chugg's research, yes, and he's mentioned in the talk. The lecture as a whole draws on the research of a number of scholars. It's not possible to cite every source during a lecture but that's part of the reason why I always try to upload guides to further reading etc afterwards - there's a link to the guide for this talk in the description that accompanies this video, and you'll find it here: chrisnaunton.com/alexander-the-great-links-further-reading/
@@ChristopherNaunton it's called The young Alexander by Alex Rowson it got recommend to me at Waterstones book shop it has great reviews and quite popular.
so Alexander was buried twice in Alexandria? Could I get clarification on this information? I only understand that Alexander was buried in the attirune mosque in alexandria
Have you watched the talk? My main purpose was to explain how he came to be buried three times in Egypt, and twice in Alexandria. The Attarin mosque itself is not one of these places. Alexander of course died a very long time before the construction of the mosque and in fact there is nothing to connect his tomb to that location except the sarcophagus which, it has been claimed, may have been used to receive Alexander's body. It's a more complicated story than I expat here - hence the talk and, if it's of interest, chapter 6 in my book: chrisnaunton.com/searching-for-the-lost-tombs-of-egypt/
@@ChristopherNaunton i see I did watch it but its more of trying to understand it. I have a school assignment on Alexander the Great that's why and I am supposed to write a research paper about him
Quick question Sir. If you think Alexander was Greek, what else have you been incorrectly taught. It actually doesn't take much genuine curious research to realise that Macedonians weren't Greek.
The ancient kingdom of Macedon is more or less universally recognised within scholarship of archaeology, antiquity etc as being part of the ancient Greek world. Hence Alexander was Greek. I do of course say that Alexander was 'Macedonian' within the first two minutes of the talk but to say 'Greek' is well within the norms of discourse in the subject.
Thanks for asking, there are but they don't lend a great deal to the story. There is a tradition that Alexander was buried in one of the Giza pyramids which clearly doesn't align with the archaeological evidence. There are also brief mentions of a mosque 'close to the gate of the city' being the tomb but we can't say precisely which one or where, or if it survives. An Arab tradition is also responsible for the identification of Alexander with the prophet Daniel which leads to the association of mosque of Nabi Daniel with the tomb - and this is in the talk of course.
Your knowledge of ancient Egypt seems to be your strong point and I can see that you have put in a lot of ground work in that department but making claims that Alexander the Great of Macedonia was greek just shows that you have a lot more to go before you can call yourself an expert on ancient Egyptian history... Getting history correct with the Macedonians and greeks is very important when talking about ancient Egypt, for starters, and another key area where people just don't know about which puzzles me to no avail because you would think that the recent decipher of the middle text on the Rosetta Stone would have made headlines and yet it's still very unknown... This is extremely important as we used the supposed greek text on the Rosetta Stone to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs, but back in the early 1800's when the British and French linguists were working on the (what was believed to be) greek text, no one was available who could read, write and speak greek! So was the greek text actually ancient Greek or was it a modern ancient Slavic Macedonian alphabet? The middle text on the other hand was believed to be Egyptian Demotic even though no one could work it out, but that's all changed since the release of the paper called Tracing The Script And The Language Of The Ancient Macedonians PDF which can be googled and downloaded for free... As it turned out, the middle text and also the main body of text is actually ancient Slavic Macedonian Sanskrit... What surprised me most is that very little had changed in the spoken language since ancient times with the Macedonians! We all know that king Philip II conquered the Greeks who were a minority, there's a difference between the two, it wasn't a civil war! And no! All the so called greek state's were not all of the same people! Forced asymulation is the key word here! And the Greeks have been doing it for a lot longer than most people realise. There's a very good reason why when we talk about inter fighting between the greek city state's that we refer to them with what or who they were before one conquered the other! The Hellenic and Spartan people might have been similar but they were different people if we don't want to believe what Greece wants us to believe! There is way too many holes in greek history for it to make any sense! We know that there was Greeks in Alexander's Macedonian army but there only official capacity could have been as foot soldiers because they were still kept conquered since Alexander's father time at the helm. There is a greek church in Alexandria Egypt where two linguists from Denmark (I could be wrong about their location) who were working on an ancient Greek scroll that had been found in the ancient Greek church which no one seemed to be able to read! One of the linguists took pictures of the text and sent them to a colleague in what we today call northern Macedonia and he was able to read it... The alphabet used was what we know today as greek but it was actually written in Slavic Macedonian... I would imagine by now that scroll has been rewritten into proper greek and the original destroyed but pictures of the original document do exist... It's also possible that all famous greek texts have also been rewritten to appear greek... Who knows but no one is questioning and no one has dug a little bit deeper to get to the bottom of it yet... It might seem insignificant in getting the small details correct but when you keep finding small incorrect details, they snowball the outcome way out of proportion! We end up looking in the wrong place for the wrong thing and that's not very helpful.... The Greeks have done a thorough job at confusing history, it's time to set the record straight for once and for all! If you get your hands on the above mentioned document, if you treat the Greeks and Macedonians as a separate people, thing's will make more sense and maybe then we can use this new insight to working out more ancient Egyptian history....
Hi Christopher, that's my point. Alexander was no more Greek than the Thracians or illyrians. And convention is incorrect. Yes he spoke at least 2 Greek dialects, yes his history is recorded in Greek. But that doesn't mean he was Greek. Mausolus was also part of the Greek world, and I expect everything you said about Alexander could be said about Mausolus. Was he Greek as well?
I think the minutiae here take the debate away from a) my expertise - in the archaeology of Egypt - and, more importantly, b) the point of the lecture. You might well be right that the conventional terms e.g. 'Greek' as used here aren't always quite as correct as other, more nuanced terms, but 'Greek' isn't entirely misleading in this context and as it's the word that's best understood, it's the one that best suits my purposes here. I can think of plenty of other conventions in Egyptology that could, in some ways, be improved upon, but by using terms that will be unfamiliar to my audience I would be running the risk of confusing them. Thanks for your thoughts!
@@ChristopherNaunton minutiae? The nationality or race of a person is minutiae? Whether it be Alexander, you or me? Greek used the way you have is actually 100% misleading. And if you replaced the term Greek with Macedonian, your audience would either understand or be educated. Would you say that Robert Burns, Robert the Bruce or Alexander Graham Bell was English? Is that minutiae? Or perhaps reminding you that Her Majesty QEII and her heirs are German. Would that be too trivial for an historian to be bothered about? By incorrectly, labelling Alexander as Greek, you are actually supporting the modern genocide of the Macedonian people by the Greeks. Perhaps you think that is trivial as well. Consider that when you next hear the news of the conflict in The Levant
I will soon reveal to you the truth about the tomb of Alexander III of Macedonia because his Ba landed in front of my eyes on a lightsword 200 meters long! Greetings from the Republic of Macedonia🇲🇰🐐🙋♂️
please let it be known that Alexander is TUTANKHAMEN . Both were boy kings. Alexander was Buried in a GOLDEN COFFIN in the tomb complex next to MOSES, who is Also known Pharaoh Ramasis 2, who was found buried and Mummified at The foot of Mount HOREB, known as the valley of the kings.. Solomons Temple is The Great PYRAMID. .second pyramid Built by captives set free from bondage from Babylon. ( mount Zion ) .AS is the city of David also on the GIZA PLATEAU. please keep up the good work .. Please .watch Histori Ographer . ."Israel Palestine pay attention .The True location of JERUSALEM ... AFTER WATCHING THE PENNY WILL DROP.. AS IT SUGGESTS THAT ALEXANDER SAILED TO THE INDUS VALLEY REGION . HE ALSO FOUND the remains NOAHS ARK On ARARAT off the coast of Pakistan, in the Indian Ocean/Erithiyean Sea ..
@@csheaffer1908 the burden of proof is all yours. You claimed something but haven't even mentioned where to find evidence. All I found when googling for it were questionable statements that sounded either like nationalistic bragging or PR talk meant to increase tourism to Jordan, and also a bunch of smooth brain clickbait. So please go on. Btw, "you should do some research" is just a weird way to say "i made a statement without backing it up, then shat my pants when questioned about it".
00:01:55: "He was Greek, from Macedon". In archaeological / Egyptological discourse the words 'Greece', 'Greek' etc are used to describe people, material culture etc from the ancient Greek world, including those from the various ancient kingdoms - Athens, Sparta, Macedon etc. Macedon, in Alexander's time, was a part of the ancient Greek world - the Macedonian people spoke the Greek language, worshipped Greek gods etc. Nevertheless, I am always careful to note that he was specifically from Macedon, as here. 😄
@@ChristopherNaunton you're part of the political propoganda machine do you ever know that Aegean MACEDONIA was given to the Greeks in 1918 it was never Greek & all the Macedonian people were beaten for speaking their " mothers tongue" in that region & were forced to change their names to "Greek" names? you English need to speak to the real MACEDONIANS & then you'll get some understanding about the truth ✌️
Chris naunton He was MACEDONIAN can you see where Athens Thebes Sparta are on the ancient map they're nowhere near MACEDONIA the Greeks hated Phillip & Alexander,enough with the propaganda lies please be truthful 🇲🇰🇲🇰🇲🇰
What propaganda are you talking about? You keep on saying your BS without ANY historical evidence. How pathetic is that? Undeniably, by any historian who lives on this planet, Alexander the Great was Greek. I really wonder if you really believe that you can change actual history if you keep on saying that Alexander the Great was Tito's cousin. Do you really think that anyone will believe you or just laugh at you?
@@maggiemakeupnails1056 Very good Maggie! A proper answer for a hater/propagandist. There are lots of them in all possible places. if you pay attention you'll see that they are actually everywhere Αλέξανδρος is being mentioned. "Spheteristes" of our history. But I don't blame them. I blame our "sold" political system. Enjoy the channel. It's a good one!
You do not need to lie to the world that Alexander was Greek , no he was not at all Greek ethnicly he was Macedonian and Macedonians are not Greeks. You dear to speak about Macedonia snd I asume youve never been there not even visited the archeological site and as a pic limited knowledge of the subject. You are not fromt here and you are trying to define who the Macedonians are andvwho they were. Bizare !
I guess YOU never visited the archaeological sites in Pella, where his father's grave is. But I guess you won't understand anything because everything is written in Greek 😅
@@iordanistzivas4902 What are you talking about Prosfygas , Karamanlia or Madjir. His father grave is in Aiga ( Vergina ) not in Pella. Dont mess with Macedonian stuf , the only and only autochtone population in Macedonia is the Macedonians who declare them self as Macedonians and NOT Greeks or Slavs !!!!
@bprzin247 You are absolutely correct about his grave, I apologise for my mistake. Makedonians are only Greeks. You are just slavs who migrated in the Balkans 1000 years after Makedonian Kingdom demise.
@@bprzin247 King Alexander undeniably by all historians who live on this planet was Greek. You are just Bulgarians, Albanians, or Turks who have absolutely NO CONNECTION AT ALL with the Hellenic ancient kingdom of Makedonia.
@@bprzin247 You used the Hellenic word autochtone ( αυτόχθων) 😅 do you even have any idea what it means? You are just petty thieves who think it's easy to steal history, but you just make the world laugh with you😁
