Now published: The Quest for the Tomb of Alexander the Great

In 2004 Andrew Chugg’s first book The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great was published to the accompaniment of international media attention, since it reported the first credible suggestion as to the current whereabouts of the long-vanished corpse of the illustrious conqueror. In the intervening years, direct progress on testing of the candidate remains has been thwarted by the Church authorities, yet much new information has emerged, casting the enigma in an ever more probing light. In this extensively updated and extended account, the tortuous meanderings of the evidence have been tracked with scrupulous care, thus teasing apart the tangled threads of erstwhile hidden history. In these pages the author lays bare the forgotten secrets of one of the greatest mysteries bequeathed to us by the ancient world. His new perspective will surely fascinate any reader with a sense of curiosity about the past. It remains significantly possible that the fate of Alexander’s tomb will turn out to be the greatest archaeological story of the 21^st century, for nobody has yet been able to refute the author’s novel suggestion that the body stolen from Alexandria in AD828 and now in Venice may have acquired a false identity at the time that paganism was outlawed by the Emperor of Rome in the 4^th century AD. In addition, the author’s published academic articles on the subject of Alexander’s mysterious death and elusive tomb are reproduced here as a collection in Appendices to the main narrative. Incorporates over 80 illustrations, including ancient artefacts, antique maps and engravings. 324 pages.

Click HERE to download the Press Release for The Quest for the Tomb of Alexander the Great in a 162kByte pdf file.

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A new article by Andrew Chugg entitled “Where is Alexander?” on the subject of the ancient and possible current locations of the king’s remains has been published in the June-July 2008 edition of “Archaeological Diggings” magazine.

Click HERE to visit the “Archaeological Diggings” magazine.

A selection of photos from Andrew’s visit to Alexandria at the end of March is now available in the new Alexandria Now gallery under the Image Library menu item HERE.

In his new best-selling novel, The Venetian Betrayal, Steve Berry has used the hypothesis that St Mark’s corpse in Venice might actually be that of Alexander as part of his plot. In his Writer’s Note on page 472 Steve has observed, “The possibility that the remains of St Mark in Venice may actually be those of Alexander the Great is not mine. Andrew Michael Chugg in his excellent The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great postulated the theory.” See http://www.steveberry.org/ for more details.

The Proceedings of the Eroi, Eroismi, Eroizzazione conference (held 18^th September 2006) have just been published by the University of Padua.

Andrew Chugg presented a paper entitled “Famous Alexandrian Mummies: The Adventures in Death of Alexander the Great and Saint Mark the Evangelist” at this conference and the full text has now been published (with 28 illustrations) in these Proceedings.

Archaeology Magazine has published a poll of 2200 visitors to its website in its January-February 2008 issue, which confirms that Alexander's is the missing tomb that people would most like to see found. Alexander’s tomb received 47% of the votes, with Genghis Khan’s and Cleopatra’s tied for second place on 18%. See http://www.archaeology.org/curiss/trenches/poll.html for more details.

Andrew Chugg gave a two-hour lecture on the subject of The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great to a well-attended meeting of the Sussex Egyptology Society in Worthing on Saturday 26^th May 2007. Andrew’s presentation was well received by an enthusiastic audience, many of whom declared themselves fascinated by this remarkable detective story.

A year after its launch Alexander’s Lovers has now been published in a second impression incorporating a range of minor corrections and mentioning some new details and additional strands of evidence. This has mainly been guided by feedback and discussions with some of the hundreds of readers of Alexander’s Lovers. See www.alexanderslovers.com

Andrew Chugg will be presenting on the subject of Alexander’s Tomb at the meeting of the Sussex Egyptology Society (SES) on Saturday 26^th May 2007. The meeting will be held at Davison High School for Girls in Selborne Road, Worthing, Sussex at 14:00. Non-Members may attend for a fee of £3. For further information see http://www.egyptology-uk.com/

Andrew Chugg’s research on Alexander's tomb was mentioned on Sunday 15^th April during the weekly broadcast of "Passepartout" (see http://www.passepartout.rai.it/), which is the leading art review programme on Italian TV and is presented by Philippe Daverio on channel RAI3. This edition was dedicated to Hellenistic art and Andrew’s work was introduced at the end of the episode, leaving hanging the question of the true identity of St.Mark's body.

An article on The Journal of Alexander the Great by Andrew Chugg has now been published in the Ancient History Bulletin, Issue 19.3-4 (please click on the adjacent thumbnails for the contents page and the first page of the article). Fragments of Alexander's Royal Journal survive which describe his final illness and death, but historians have doubted their authenticity. This new article argues that the Journal must be genuine, because Ephippus, a man once employed by Alexander, wrote a commentary upon it. This leads to the conclusion that the King is likely to have died of a fever, rather than through poisoning. This issue of the Ancient History Bulletin can be ordered for $15 from its website at http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/faculty/classics/ahb.html

Article on Alexander's Tomb in BBC Focus Magazine (Feb 07)

There is a 6-page article on Alexander's tomb in the February 2007 edition of BBC Focus magazine, written by Robert Matthews, visiting Reader in Science at Aston University. It is available from 18^th January 2007 in most larger UK Newsagents. Unfortunately the BBC Focus website at www.focusmag.co.uk only seems to have a two sentence summary: “Alexander the Great conquered the ancient world, but the whereabouts of his body remains unknown. A new theory, however, suggests that it might have been under our noses all this time.”

The cover of the magazine poses the question, “Alexander’s tomb found?” This is a reference to Andrew Chugg’s theory that the Alexandrians may have used Alexander’s body in creating their new tomb of St Mark, when the worship of Alexander was made illegal by the Emperor Theodosius in AD391. The article points out that the body, said to be St Mark, was taken to Venice in AD828 and that it currently lies in the Basilica di San Marco in that city, hence the comment that Alexander’s body may have been beneath our noses.

The article seems fairly balanced and includes short interviews with (and other quotes from) both Andrew Chugg and Nicholas Saunders. It also quotes Jean-Yves Empereur, the head of the CEA in Alexandria, on the matter of the location of the famous tomb in Alexandria.

This article contains the first publication in print of Andrew Chugg’s recent suggestion that a visual inspection of the remains in the Basilica di San Marco may suffice to resolve the question of their identity, since Alexander is said to have suffered distinctive wounds that damaged his skeleton (leg and chest).

An article on The Journal of Alexander the Great by Andrew Chugg is scheduled to be published in the Ancient History Bulletin, Issue 19.3-5 in November or December 2006. It shows that the surviving fragments of Alexander’s Royal Journal are very probably authentic. This means that the King is likely to have died of a fever, rather than through poisoning. This issue of the Ancient History Bulletin can be ordered for $15 from its website at http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/faculty/classics/ahb.html

This article was the subject of a newspaper story in the Independent in 2005, which can be found here: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article304278.ece

Programme now available for the conference “Eroi, Eroismi, Eroizzazioni Dalla Grecia antica a Padova e Venezia” (Tombs of the Greek Heroes) to be held at the University of Padua in Italy, 18^th-19^th September 2006, and at which Andrew Chugg will present on “Famous Alexandrian Mummies: The Adventures in Death of Alexander the Great and St Mark the Evangelist”.

Download the Programme here (214kBytes)

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The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great is now available directly within a few days to customers in the USA at Amazon.com as well as on the UK, French, Canadian, German and Japanese Amazon sites. To find it at Amazon.com search on tomb chugg or try this link.

More information about Alexander's Death