Cleopatra, Mark Antony's tombs may have been found

Archaeologists think the lovers' remains are in the temple of Taposiris Magna, west of Alexandria, Egypt. Excavations begin soon.

By Thomas H. Maugh II
LA Times
April 18, 2009

Archaeologists think they may be close to locating the graves of the doomed lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony in a temple on the Mediterranean Sea just west of Alexandria, Egypt.

For years, researchers have been seeking the graves of the famed pair, celebrated in plays and movies, but all the leads have proved fruitless. French archaeologists, for example, recently said that they believed the tombs to be in the newly excavated remains of Cleopatra's palace in Alexandria but so far have found nothing.

Last year, archaeologists from Egypt and the Dominican Republic found the remains of a cemetery near the temple of Taposiris Magna, 17 miles west of Alexandria. The cemetery has so far yielded 27 tombs and 10 mummies, two of them gilded. Such cemeteries are common near royal tombs.

The team has also found a damaged bust of Cleopatra, 22 coins bearing her image and a funerary mask that is believed to be of Mark Antony.

(More here.)