She’s among the most famous leaders in world history, yet archeologists still don’t know the location of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra’s tomb. Now, National Geographic Explorer and archaeologist Dr. Kathleen Martínez and her team have uncovered a major clue in their 20-year-long hunt: the remains of a port off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. The previously unknown ancient port could have been used to keep the Egyptian queen’s remains out of Roman hands.
The discovery was recently announced by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, published by National Geographic, and is the focus of a new documentary called Cleopatra’s Final Secret.
What happened to Cleopatra?
Queen Cleopatra VII was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 69 CE and became queen at the age of 18. Her forces were defeated by Octavian (also known as Emperor Augustus) the founder of the Roman Empire,, during the Battle of Actium in 31 CE. The legend has it that she allowed a poisonous snake to bite her in Alexandria in 30 CE, but the exact circumstances of her death remain unknown. Even the remains of Cleopatra’s sister Arsinoë IV have long been shrouded in mystery and speculation.
Upon her death, the Romans made sure to destroy imagery of Cleopatra, with fewer than 10 statues to her surviving to this day. This lack of evidence has made finding her final resting place quite difficult.
National Geographic
The theory
Martínez, originally a criminal defense lawyer, theorizes that after Cleopatra’s death, her body was brought to the temple Taposiris Magna near the coastal city of Alexandria. Her remains were carried through a now-underwater tunnel and through a port offshore, before being laid to rest and hidden from the Romans. In 365 CE, the city of Alexandria was largely destroyed by earthquakes and a tsunami, meaning that the port and any potential marker or tomb for Cleopatra was submerged under the salty waters of the Mediterranean.
About 2,000 years later, Martínez recruited the help of a very well-known name in regards to underwater discoveries–Dr. Robert Ballard. The oceanographer, senior scientists emeritus at Woods Hole Oceanic Institution, and National Geographic explorer led the expedition that uncovered the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 1985.
“We were able to locate the tunnel, but we needed somebody that, as an oceanographer, could map the area, and this is how he came and helped us,” Martínez tells Popular Science. “It would have taken me at least five years to get the information that he was able to deliver in one month.”
‘Ra’s justice has shown’
Martínez first found a 4,265-foot underground tunnel in 2022. In the expeditions since, the team found rows of towering structures that could have been columns, some of which stand at over 20 feet high. The team also uncovered evidence of polished stone floors, ship anchors, cemented blocks, and storage jars called amphorae. Importantly, all of these objects are dated to the time of Cleopatra. They also found what could be the eighth Cleopatra statue. Taken together, the tunnel and these discoveries indicate a sunken Egyptian port below the Mediterranean Sea.
According to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, 337 coins were also found in these expeditions, many of them bearing Cleopatra’s image. The team also uncovered pottery, oil lamps, limestone pots, bronze statues, a two-piece amulet inscribed with a phrase that translates to “Ra’s Justice Has Shone,” and a bronze ring dedicated to Hathur, the goddess of love, beauty, music, dancing, fertility, and pleasure.
Kathleen Martinez, finds at Taposiris Magna what may be the eighth statue of Cleopatra in existence. This perhaps establishes the strongest evidence for Kathleen’s theory that Cleopatra is intimately connected to this temple. CREDIT: National Geographic
Martínez says that finding this suspected ancient harbor is filling in large gaps about one of history’s most storied figures–all without the use of primary sources.
[ Related: Sorry, this skull does not belong to Cleopatra’s sister. ]
“There were no ancient sources about a harbor at Tabosiris Magna,” she explains. “We have archaeological evidence, and we have an inscription inside the temple, where a pilgrim was thanking Osiris and Isis for being alive because they were in the middle of the storm in the sea.”
The inscription and the location where the Lighthouse of Alexandria once stood helped Martínez and the team deduce that there likely was a port at the Tabosiris Magna temple, which could have ferried Cleopatra’s body away to its final resting place.
For her part, Martínez will remain dedicated to finding Cleopatra’s tomb saying, “it’s a matter of time.”
Cleopatra’s Final Secret is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
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