Some of ancient history’s leaders and kings seemed to have vanished into the earth itself. Despite centuries of archaeological investigations, the final resting places of figures like Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, and Genghis Khan remain undiscovered. Many of these rulers were buried in tombs designed to withstand the passage of time, yet they vanished. Others were hidden by design or deliberate erasure. Today, modern technology brings us closer to unearthing some of these legendary tombs, yet many remain a mystery. Here are 9 resting places yet to be found.
Quick Facts
| Ruler | Region/Context | Status/Mystery |
|---|---|---|
| Alexander the Great | Alexandria/Venice (unproven) | Unknown |
| Antony and Cleopatra | Alexandria/Taposiris Magna (unproven) | Submerged/Unknown |
| Attila the Hun | Hungarian Plain/Tisza River | Hidden/Unknown |
| Genghis Khan | Burkhan Khaldun | Protected/Unknown |
| Queen Nefertiti | Valley of the Kings | Unknown |
| Queen Boudica | Unknown | Unknown |
| Alfred the Great | Hyde Abbey/Winchester | Scattered/Unknown |
| Imhotep | Ṣaqqārah | Unknown |
| Alaric the Visigoth | Busento River | Hidden/Unknown |
1. The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great
After becoming king of Macedonia in 336 BC at just 20 years old, Alexander the Great embarked on a series of military campaigns leading to the creation of a vast empire stretching from Macedonia to Egypt and from Greece to India. After his death at 33 years old, his body was sent to his native Macedonia. It never arrived.
Ptolemy Soter, one of Alexander’s powerful friends and founder of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, had the funeral train redirected to Memphis, Egypt. After several years, Ptolemy II (ruled 282-246 BC) moved Alexander’s body to Alexandria. Then, Ptolemy IV (ruled 221-204 BC) had it placed in the so-called Soma, the third and most famous resting place of the Macedonian ruler.
The mausoleum became the center of a cult of Alexander, who, according to Strabo, initially rested in a golden sarcophagus. Among the most famed visitors were Julius Caesar in 48 BC, Octavian, who visited the Soma after his victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra (and allegedly broke off part of Alexander’s nose while examining the body), and Roman Emperor Caracalla.
The last known ancient author to mention Alexander’s body as still on display in Alexandria is Libanius, who died in 393 AD. Some years earlier, the Theodosian Decrees ordering the dismantling of pagan temples in the territories of the Roman Empire likely affected the Soma, the de facto center of the cult for the deified Alexander. Then, all traces of the tomb and body disappeared.
A tsunami, a series of earthquakes, and rising sea levels that flooded large areas of Alexandria have long posed challenges for archaeologists searching for the tomb. Over time, various locations in the Egyptian city have been suggested as the possible site of Alexander the Great’s tomb. Some scholars, however, believed that Alexander’s remains had been moved elsewhere. For a time, the discovery of a tomb in ancient Aigai (present-day Vergina) in Macedonia raised scholars’ hope. However, the burial site turned out to be that of Alexander’s father, Philip II.
An alternative theory, proposed by Andrew Chugg, claims the body of Alexander lies beneath the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice. Venetian merchants smuggled what they believed to be the remains of St. Mark, martyred in Alexandria in the 60s AD, to Venice. According to Chugg, they actually belong to Alexander. The claim, however, is yet to be proven.
2. The Submerged Mausoleum of Antony and Cleopatra
In 31 BC, the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra suffered a major defeat at the naval Battle of Actium at the hands of Octavian (the future emperor Augustus). After fleeing to Egypt, the queen sought refuge in her mausoleum, while Antony went off to battle. According to Plutarch, upon hearing a false report of Cleopatra’s death, he committed suicide. Then, Cleopatra herself ended her life.
In his Life of Antony, Plutarch wrote that Octavian “gave orders that her body should be buried with that of Antony in splendid and regal fashion.” However, he gave no location of the burial site. Many scholars believe that Cleopatra, Egypt’s last Ptolemaic ruler, was buried near her royal palace in Alexandria, but her resting place is yet to be discovered.
More recently, in 2022, criminal lawyer-turned-archaeologist Kathleen Martínez announced that her team discovered artifacts and structures dating to Cleopatra’s time in an underwater site off the coast of Taposiris Magna, including a 4,300-foot-long tunnel heading from the sunken port to the sea. Martínez believes the queen’s body was brought through this tunnel to a burial place hidden from the Romans. As of today, however, the theory has yet to be proven.
3. The Hidden River Grave of Attila the Hun
King of the Huns from 434 to 453, Attila launched a series of military attacks against the forces of the Roman Empire (both the Eastern and Western portions), invading the southern Balkan provinces, Gaul, and Italy. He died the night following his wedding to his latest wife, Ildico.
According to De origine actibusque Getarum (The Origin and Deeds of the Getae), written by Jordanes (a 6th-century historian of Gothic descent) in 551 AD, Attila’s body lay in state “in a silken tent” so that his people could mourn him. After the funeral, he was buried at night. “They bound his coffins, the first with gold, the second with silver and the third with the strength of iron …; iron because he subdued the nations, gold and silver because he received the honors of both empires.” Arms, precious gems, and other ornaments were then added into the grave.
Finally, to prevent anyone from desecrating and plundering the tomb, those who buried him were killed. An unverified story claims that his followers diverted the course of a river to dig his grave and, only after the burial, they allowed the waterway to return to its course.
If Jordanes’ account were true, the resting place of Attila might be somewhere on the Great Hungarian Plain. In 2013, a news story claimed that archaeologists had located the tomb in the Tisza River, a waterway that crosses the Hungarian plains. The story became viral, but it turned out to be fake. Attila’s tomb is yet to be discovered.
4. The Sacred Forbidden Ground of Genghis Khan
Between the second half of the 12th and the first decades of the 13th centuries, the Mongolian ruler known as Genghis Khan united the nomadic tribes of Mongolia under his rule and then established an empire extending as far as the Adriatic Sea in the West and the Pacific coast of China in the East.
According to legend, when he died in 1227, his soldiers killed those who built the Khan’s tomb. They were then killed themselves to keep the burial site’s secret. It was also said that all those who saw the funeral procession met the same fate. The tale of a funeral convoy for Möngke Khan killing everyone it encountered along the road was reported by Venetian explorer Marco Polo. It is probably the origin of the Genghis Khan version of the same story.
Over the centuries, various archaeologists have tried to solve the mystery surrounding Genghis Khan’s burial site, and numerous sites have been identified as possible locations. Many believe that the Khan’s tomb is on Burkhan Khaldun, a holy mountain for the Mongol people and a UNESCO World Heritage site. As the mountain is a sacred place, and therefore protected by law, no scholar has been granted permission to excavate the area.
In 2010, a team led by Albert Lin, a scientist at the University of California, San Diego, devised a non-invasive approach: using technology, such as satellites, drones, ground-penetrating radar, magnetometry, and electromagnetic induction, to explore Burkhan Khaldun without physically entering the site. Albert Lin’s team even enlisted the help of a number of internet sleuths to hunt satellite images for clues. Still, the exact location remains unknown, rightly so, according to some.
5. The Secret Nile Chambers of Queen Nefertiti
In 1912, the discovery of a bust of Nefertiti turned her into one of the most recognizable female figures of ancient history. Nefertiti was the wife of King Akhenaten (ruled c. 1353-1336 BC), who introduced the cult of the Aton (the sun’s disk) in Egypt. The discovery of reliefs and statuary related to Nefertiti has led some historians to believe the queen acted more as a co-ruler than as the king’s consort. However, no written evidence can confirm this political status.
After Akhenaten’s 12th year as the king of Egypt, Nefertiti seemed to vanish. Did she die? Did she rule as a female king before leaving the throne to her stepson, Tutankhamen? There is no evidence of her burial in the Amarna royal tomb, where her husband rests. As one of the bodies placed in the complex was later reinterred at Thebes, some believe Nefertiti’s remains might be among the unidentified bodies unearthed in the Valley of the Kings.
In the early 21st century, the so-called body of the “Younger Lady” was recovered from the tomb of Amenhotep II, but it almost certainly is that of a woman too young to be Nefertiti. In 2015, British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves proposed another theory: Nefertiti’s burial site was a hidden chamber behind the north wall of Tutankhamen’s tomb. However, when Japanese, American, and Italian teams conducted ground-penetrating radar surveys inside the pharaoh’s resting place, their results were conflicting.
6. The Unmarked Rural Burial of Queen Boudica
The following passage in Cassius Dio’s Roman History is the only surviving physical description of Queen Boudica:
“In stature she was very tall, in appearance most terrifying, in the glance of her eye most fierce, and her voice was harsh; 4 a great mass of the tawniest hair fell to her hips; around her neck was a large golden necklace; and she wore a tunic of divers colors over which a thick mantle was fastened with a brooch.”
In 60 (or 61) AD, the ancient British queen organized an armed revolt against Roman rule after Emperor Nero, upon the death of her husband, Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, annexed their lands.
During the absence of governor Suetonius Paulinus, the queen gathered support throughout East Anglia, attacking Camulodunum (Colchester), Verulamium (St. Albans), and the mart of Londinium (London). Roman historian Tacitus wrote that Boudica’s forces killed around 70,000 Romans. Paulinus, however, met the rebels in a battle at an as-yet-unknown location (among the suggestions are present-day Fenny Stratford or Watling Street) and managed to regain control of the territory.
Upon her defeat, Queen Boudica died, either by poison, shock, or illness. Over the years, unsubstantiated rumors have spread about Boudica’s resting place, including the legend that she is buried under platform 8, 9, or 10 at King’s Cross Station (London). Her tomb remains unknown.
Archaeologist Richard Hingley of Durham University believes that the search might be a futile effort as “most Iron Age people in this region were disposed of in ways that do not show up in the archaeological record.”
7. The Scattered Saxon Bones of Alfred the Great
The king of Wessex (a Saxon kingdom in southwestern England) between 871 and 899 AD, Alfred the Great led a successful resistance campaign against the Danes, playing a crucial role in the survival of Anglo-Saxon England. After scoring an important win at the Battle of Edington (878), Alfred captured London, becoming the king of all English territories not under Danish control. Besides being a military leader, the Wessex ruler was an educator and reformer, himself translating Latin works into English.
Upon his death, King Alfred was buried in Winchester Cathedral, also known as the Old Minster. His son, Edward the Elder, then moved the remains to the New Minster, which, in 1110, was transferred to Hyde and became Hyde Abbey. Alfred’s body was also brought there. In the 16th century, the Dissolution of the Monasteries caused the abbey to be dismantled, but the king’s tomb remained there.
In 1788, a workhouse/prison was built where the abbey once stood, and, according to an eyewitness account, the tombs were opened and the bodies scattered. About a century later, John Mellor, an antiquarian, sold what he claimed to be the bones he recovered from the site of Hyde Abbey to the rector of St. Bartholomew’s Church in Hyde. There, the remains were buried in an unmarked grave.
In 2013, however, when Hyde900, a group of Hyde residents created to celebrate the local history, was allowed to exhume the remains of the “unmarked grave,” carbon dating revealed they belonged to someone who had lived much later than Alfred.
More recently, the discovery of a fragment of pelvic bone previously found at the site of Hyde Abbey’s altar gave scholars an important clue: the University of Oxford carbon-dated it to between 895 and 1017 AD. This means it could belong to King Alfred, Edward the Elder, or Æthelweard, Alfred’s brother.
8. The Deep Saqqara Labyrinth of Imhotep
Born in the 27th or 26th century BC in Memphis, Egypt, Imhotep is perhaps best known as the architect of the step pyramid of Djoser at the necropolis of Ṣaqqārah. To build the tomb, Imhotep used blocks of limestone instead of the traditional mud bricks and placed the resting place of the king more than 65 feet below the structure.
The architect built another pyramid, that of King Sekhemkhet, and was also worshipped as the god of medicine. An inscription found on the statue base of Djoser, preserved in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, lists all of Imhotep’s titles: “Prince, royal seal-bearer of the king of Lower Egypt, high priest of Heliopolis, director of sculptors.”
Ironically, the final resting place of this famed pyramid architect remains one of the most intriguing mysteries of ancient Egypt. Generations of archaeologists and Egyptologists have tried and failed to identify his tomb. According to the two main theories, Imhotep’s remains are either somewhere in Djoser’s pyramid (as he was a de facto member of the royal family) or in North Ṣaqqārah, where other nobles of the Third Dynasty are buried.
In 1969, Professor Walter Emery of London University believed he had found the tomb in the site of a temple dedicated to Imhotep dating to the 4th century BC, two thousand years after his death. The myriad of graffiti scratched into the walls suggests it was a pilgrimage site where visitors hoped to be cured of their illnesses. However, there is no compelling evidence to prove the temple is the site of Imhotep’s tomb.
Some even argue that the resting place may have already been found but never identified due to deterioration.
9. The Diverted Italian River of Alaric the Visigoth
The commander of Gothic troops in the Roman army and later the elected chief of the Visigoths, Alaric invaded Italy multiple times before his 410 sack of Rome. Angered by Rome’s refusal to give his tribe the promised subsidies, Alaric’s forces descended into the peninsula in 401 but were defeated. In 408 and 409, as Emperor Honorius did not grant his request for more subsidies, he laid siege to Rome. Then, as further negotiations broke down, Alaric’s Visigoths sacked Rome, an event that foreshadowed the later fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Alaric died in the same year in Cosentia (present-day Cosenza, Calabria) as he was marching north with an extremely valuable booty plundered from Rome. He likely became ill from a type of malaria fever near the Busento River. What happened next is unclear. According to Jordanes, “His people mourned for him with the utmost affection. Then turning from its course the river Busentus … they led a band of captives into the midst of its bed to dig out a place for his grave. In the depths of this pit they buried Alaric, together with many treasures, and then turned the waters back into their channel. And that none might ever know the place, they put to death all the diggers.”
Over time, history gave way to myth, and rumors began to spread, fascinating archaeologists and writers alike. In his travel memoir of Calabria, French writer Dumas (who ironically stayed at an inn named Al Riposo di Alarico, or “Alaric’s Rest”) reported seeing locals digging in the riverbed for Alaric’s treasure after the 1835 earthquake drained the Busento River.
