Cleopatra’s Tomb Has Evaded Discovery for 2,000 Years. Now, an Archaeologist Believes She Knows the Secret to Find It.

8 min readHere’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:Cleopatra—Egypt’s last active pharaoh—died by suicide after the Romans defeated her and her lover, Mark Antony. Researchers generally believe that Cleopatra’s final resting place is now beneath the sea, but one archaeologist thinks that the empress may have strategically hidden her tomb. Finding the tomb would fill in many gaps in ancient history—and possibly even rewrite the death of the last pharaoh.The story goes like this: Following Octavius’s defeat of her forces and lover, Mark Antony, Cleopatra chose to die by suicide rather than fall into the hands of the Romans. Historical records tell us that she is buried in a mausoleum in Alexandria, alongside Antony. Today, their bodies are likely underwater, along with the rest of the ancient city.Kathleen Martínez, however, doesn’t buy this narrative. For the last two decades, the lawyer-turned-archaeologist has been on a hunt for the famous empress’s resting place. She believes Cleopatra could’ve hidden her tomb at Taposiris Magna, a coastal temple some 30 miles west of Alexandria. If she’s right, Martínez could rewrite the final days of one of history’s most compelling figures, whose tomb has evaded archaeologists for more than 2,000 years. But the theory is controversial; she’s met with skepticism by many experts in the field. Still, the question remains: Where is Cleopatra lurking—and who is going to find her?Martínez’s path to becoming an archaeologist was an unconventional one. From a young age, Martínez felt she was destined to become an archaeologist. However, like most children who dream of being rock stars or astronauts, her parents convinced her to pursue something much more practical: law. At 18, she graduated law school and became a criminal lawyer. Martínez later went on to earn a master’s degree in finance and finally a master’s in archaeology.In an interview with Knowledge at Wharton—a University of Pennsylvania business journal—Martínez recalls an exchange with her father that motivated her research. He regarded Cleopatra as a “political schemer… not even deserving of a historical footnote,” according to the article. That sent Martínez down a rabbit hole. And now she’s on the hunt to find Egypt’s last active pharaoh.For someone so often described as the world’s first celebrity, Cleopatra remains an enigmatic figure. While little information about her survives in contemporary Egyptian sources, the Romans were committed to vilifying Cleopatra, painting her as a manipulative seductress who caused the downfalls of Roman men.“The Romans didn’t like women, and they didn’t like kings and queens, and they didn’t like people who challenged Roman authority,” explains Jane Draycott, PhD, a historian and archaeologist at the University of Glasgow who isn’t involved in Martínez’s project. “Cleopatra checks all of those boxes.”Born in 69 B.C.E., Cleopatra was the last monarch of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a Greek royal family that ruled Egypt from 305 to 30 B.C.E. She rose to the throne at just 18 years old and forged important political and romantic alliances with the Romans Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.The most detailed account of Cleopatra’s life comes from Plutarch’s Life of Antony, which tells us that Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt following their defeat by Octavian’s forces at the Battle of Actium. A year later, the Romans surrounded Alexandria. Cleopatra hid in the mausoleum she had built for herself near a temple of Isis and sent messengers to tell Antony she was dead. Much like Shakespeare’s fateful Romeo and Juliet, Antony was distraught and stabbed himself with his sword—only to find out Cleopatra was still alive. He demanded that his men take him to the mausoleum, where he died in Cleopatra’s arms. A few days later, Cleopatra would also end her own life rather than be captured by the Romans. And so the star-crossed lovers (or, rather, rulers) met their end.If we’re to believe the historical accounts, Cleopatra and Antony lay together in the mausoleum. Plutarch writes: “Caesar, although vexed at the death of the woman, admired her lofty spirit; and he gave orders that her body should be buried with that of Antony in splendid and regal fashion.” In the centuries that followed, earthquakes, tsunamis, and rising sea levels riddled the region. That means that Cleopatra and Antony—along with much of ancient Alexandria—are likely submerged beneath the water’s surface, obscured from the rest of the world. “If Cleopatra’s tomb was in the royal palace quarter, it’s gone beneath the waves,” says Draycott.With this in mind, archaeologists like Franck Goddio have been conducting expeditions off the coast of Alexandria since the ’90s in the hopes of learning more about the lost city. In 1996, Goddio uncovered the submerged remains of a Temple of Isis, and he has also found countless statues, coins, and ceramics in the years since. Still, no Cleopatra.But what if the pharaoh is hiding somewhere else? Martínez—who did not return requests for comment—thinks Cleopatra would have outsmarted the Romans instead. “Cleopatra’s tomb has never been found because she wasn’t buried in a tomb,” she tells Knowledge at Wharton.Burial preparations were extremely important in ancient Egyptian culture, as they helped ensure that the deceased would have a successful transition to their eternal life. “She had to choose a location where she could feel safe for her afterlife with Mark Antony,” Martínez explains to National Geographic. After scouring through sites that Cleopatra’s body could have ended up, Martínez landed on Taposiris Magna, which translates to “great tomb of Osiris.” This was fitting, as Cleopatra associated herself with Isis (the goddess of healing and magic) and Antony with Osiris (the god of the dead).However, dropping a pin on a map is much easier than actually starting to dig. In 2002, Martínez spent months calling and faxing Egyptian officials for permission to visit areas that aren’t open to the public—but she was met with silence. Determined, she made her way to Egypt, where she eventually managed to convince the government to allow her to excavate at Taposiris Magna.Finally, in 2005, Martínez and her team started to dig. More than 20 years later, they have yet to uncover Cleopatra’s missing tomb—but they have made several discoveries that Martínez believes connect the site to the empress. They found a foundation plate that said that the former temple had been dedicated to the goddess Isis, hundreds of coins etched with Cleopatra’s face, and other small artifacts. (Martínez alleges that she also found a statue of Cleopatra at the site, but the claim was widely disputed by other archaeologists).In 2022, the team announced the discovery of a 6.5-foot-tall, 4,300-foot-long tunnel that led to the sea. The tunnel is an exact replica of the Tunnel of Eupalinos, a famous ancient aqueduct in Greece. Later expeditions traced it to a sunken port, where the team found evidence of polished stone floors, ship anchors, cemented blocks, and ceramic jars dating back to the time of Cleopatra.“There were no ancient sources about a harbor at Taposiris Magna,” Martínez says in a 2025 interview with Popular Science. “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.”Martínez theorizes that this structure was part of an elaborate burial plan. She suggests that Cleopatra arranged for priests to transport her mummified body to Taposiris Magna via the tunnel, laying her to rest at the secret site. It’s a beautiful sentiment—but Draycott is unconvinced. “As far as we can tell from the historical record,” she says, “Cleopatra’s tomb is in Alexandria.”According to Draycott, there’s a consensus among historians and classicists about the facts of Cleopatra’s life and death, even though the Roman sources are biased. “Okay, don’t trust the literature. Trust the archaeology,” Draycott says. “What does that tell us? Pretty much the same as the literature.” In other words, what researchers have gathered from inscriptions, architecture, and coinage isn’t very different from what is in the literature; it’s just a different perspective on it, she explains.For instance, the discovery of coins bearing Cleopatra’s face at Taposiris Magna isn’t confirmation that she’s buried there. Adding even more uncertainty, most of Martínez’s findings are disseminated through press releases, not peer-reviewed studies or excavation reports. That makes it hard to draw definitive conclusions about Martínez’s work, says Draycott.Stephen Buckley, PhD—an archaeological chemist at the University of York who isn’t involved with Martínez’s expeditions—also remains doubtful. “At the moment, there’s nothing convincing about a secondary burial.” And if Cleopatra were to have a secret tomb somewhere, Draycott says that you’d expect it to be at a temple she was heavily involved with, like the Temple of Hathor. “She’s an important queen to her mind, she’s not going to put herself somewhere humble,” Draycott says.While the mystery of Cleopatra’s final resting place has captivated people for centuries, it’s also important to remember that she isn’t the only monarch with a missing grave. We don’t have the tombs of any Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt, or of Alexander the Great, who was reburied in Alexandria following his death in Babylon. “That is frustrating,” says Draycott, “and it does leave it open to, well, where are they? Why haven’t we found them? But that doesn’t mean that they’re somewhere else when the literature specifically says that they’re [in Alexandria].”Despite the criticism, Martínez has held steadfast in her theory. In 2016, when asked about what she had to say to those who doubt her work, she responded: “The rigorous scientific work we have carried out in the temple Taposiris Magna has been to better comprehend an important historical period much of which remains a mystery. These findings are contributions to Egyptology, they are supported by archaeological evidence that others were unable to discover but that were indeed within this sacred temple.”Buckley agrees that there is merit to archaeological work at Taposiris Magna, even if he doesn’t believe Cleopatra is buried there. “It’s an interesting site, and I do think it’s worthy of study,” he says. “I think there could be interesting findings from it.”Ultimately, the location of Cleopatra’s tomb matters far less than its contents—namely, her body. Draycott says that finding her mummy would be “the most amazing archaeological find in the ancient world.” It would allow scientists to reconstruct her physical appearance, long a subject of fascination and debate. We might even learn what killed her. “People wouldn’t be able to leave it alone,” Draycott says.Draycott draws a comparison to the discovery of Richard III in a parking lot in Leicester, England. Like Cleopatra, he is “someone who has a huge historical reputation and is the subject of a Shakespeare play, who has people who hate him and people who love him,” she says.For years, people debated whether the king was truly a hunchback, or whether his physical appearance was exaggerated by Tudor propagandists. When archaeologists found his body, it was revealed that he had scoliosis. “It would be a similar situation, only a lot more international,” she says, “because ultimately Richard III is an unimportant English king.”For now, Martínez’s search continues. “Nobody can tell me that Cleopatra is not at Taposiris Magna,” she tells National Geographic. “To say that you have to excavate the whole area and not find her.” Until then, the mystery remains.Special Digital IssuesAugust/September 2026Download HereThis issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing.It's also available on Apple News+.Featuring:➡ A Luxury Resort Hid a Secret Government Doomsday Bunker Below It for 35 Years. 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