ALEXANDER'S TOMB

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1004, 21 June 1930, Page 30

ALEXANDER'S TOMB

I NEW QUEST BY HOWARD CARTER BURIED IN GOLDEN COFFIN | Mr. Howard Carter, wlro, with the I late Lord Carnarvon, discovered the | tomb of King Tutankhamen at Luxoi. ! Egypt, is shortly to make an effort to | locate and explore the tomb of AlexI auder the Great. Alexander, who died iu Babylon. i.-> believed to have been buried at Alexandria iu 323 8.C.. in a golden coffin. Mr. Howard Carter, who returned front Egypt to London recently, told a “Daily Mail" reporter that the effort to locate and explore the tomb will be made after the completion ot the work ou the tomb of Tutankhamen, when the Egyptian excavation season opens next October. “According to Plutarch,” said Mr. Carter, “it was at Alexandria that Alexander was buried, but the exact position of the tomb unknown. "We shall find it. I dare say, iu one of the royal cemeteries, but I anticipate that our quest will be a long, difficult, and expensive one. One of our main troubles is that Alexandria has been built on to such a great extent that all our preliminary work will have to be done by probing. “By a process of sinking tubes we shall' have to find the cemetery and then work gradually toward the centre and the royal tomb. “As is generally known, all ancient I Egyptian cemeteries were constructed jon that plan. The royal tomb was situated iu the centre and the tombs lof the royal priDces and dowagers i were grouped around. Next, in a wider ! circle, were buried the courtiers, the i court officials, and others of similar ! rank. Then came the middle class, and. !in a more distant circle, the lower | classes. I “If our quest is successful and we ! are able to explore the tomb, our dlsj coveries will he of greater importance I than those at Tutankhamen’s tomb, for Alexander had as great an influ.* ! ence on Tvestern as on eastern his ■ tory.”

“With regard to the tomb of Tutankhamen, although some 5,000 pieces have been taken out of it, there is still a great deal of work to be done there. For instance, I hope next October to remove the four great shrines and prepare them for transport to the Cairo Museum.” Mr, Carter smiled when the supposed curse of Tutankhamen's tomb was mentioned. “It is a pack of lies invented by irI responsible innocents,” was his comment. “There is no such thing as a curse on any tomb. In my experience I have always found that the inscriptions on tombs wish well to those who visit them. All tombs, as a matter of fact, are sterile, and any disease that may be there is imported.” Alexander, son of Philip, King of Macedon, and the most brilliant military leader in history, was born in 356 8.C., and succeeded his father in 336. The Macedonians had been regarded by the Greeks of the city’ States as barbarians, but the great philosopher Aristotle had been called in by Philip to be tutor to Alexander, who grew up imbued with the love of Greek art and literature. Completing the work of Philip, Alexander succeeded in putting himself at the head of a great confederation of the Greek States, and set out on an expedition to the East in 334. He hoped to overthrow the Persian Empire, whose menace had overhung the Greek world for centuries, and tjien to go on into Asia, with apparently the ultimate dream of setting up a new empire which should unite the genius of Greece with the splendour of the Oriental monarchies. He came near success. The Persians were defeated iu a series of great battles —Granicus, 334; Issus, 333; Arbela, 331. The Persian king Darius was killed by his own nobles to prevent his capture by Alexander, who had already mastered Egypt and Syria, and now gained possession of the whole of Persia proper. Still seeking “new worlds to conquer,” Alexander pressed on into the heart of Asia, conquering much of North India and the Punjab, and penetrating even to the Ganges. Everywhere he went he founded Greek cities and left Macedonian governors behind to rule for him. But ou his return to Persia lie fell ill at Babylon, and died in 323, aged only 33. After Alexander's death his empire was divided up among his generals, and rapidly fell to pieces.