Cleopatra’s Tomb Hunt: Two Mummies Hold Clues

The male and female mummies may have been priests who played a key role in controlling the power of the legendary Egyptian queen and her lover, Mark Athopy.

Also found at the site were 200 coins bearing Cleopatra’s name and face, which would have been struck based on Cleopatra’s direct instructions. The location of the lost tomb of Marcus Aptoy and Cleopatra VII from 30 BC remains unknown, although it is located somewhere near the Egyptian city of Alexandria.

But this research team is anticipating that excavations at the city of Taposiris Maga, which is marked by a temple that still stands today, will soon cover the couple’s resting place. Although researchers have been excavating the site since 2005, only a small percentage of the vast site has been explored.

The two mummies were found inside a sealed tomb at Taposiris Maga, where excavations are underway to discover Cleopatra’s tomb.

The temple is located near Alexandria, the capital of ancient Egypt and where Cleopatra committed suicide in 30 BC.

The mummies were found in what is the first intact tomb to be opened at Taposiris Maga, though that is the subject of a Chapel 5 documentary airing this week.

“Even though the flow covered dust from 2,000 years ago, at the time these mummies would have been spectacular,” Dr Glepé Godeпho, a senior lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, told the Guard.

“Being covered in gold leaf shows that they would have been important members of society.”

One of the mummies was found bearing an image of a scarab, decorated with gold leaf, symbolising rebirth. But the 200 coins bearing Cleopatra’s image link the pharaoh ruler directly to Taposiris Maga, which was founded in the 3rd century BC.

The Queen’s ‘promising, double-chipped pose’ as depicted on the coins suggests she was not as outwardly beautiful as the actresses who played her first film, most memorably Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 film ‘Cleopatra’.

Dr Godepho said the tomb of Atopia and Cleopatra is expected to be a “more advanced affair” than this mummified couple.

“Although we do not know what the tombs of the Ptolemaic rulers looked like because the popes have never been firmly identified yet, it is highly likely that they are describable and identifiable from the burials of their subjects,” he told MailOпliпe.

“Add to that the fact that most consider the tomb of Cleopatra and Marcus Atopia to be in the vicinity of Alexandria rather than here at Taposiris Maga, and all the evidence points to these mummies being anything but royal.”

Archaeologists searching for the tomb of Athopy and Cleopatra (pictured played by Richard Burto and Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 film) have zeroed in on a site on the other side of Egypt.

Dr. Kathlee Martinez, a scholar from the Dominican Republic, is leading the excavation at the temple of Taposiris Maga. After working there for more than 14 years, Dr. Martinez and her colleagues are more convinced than ever that Cleopatra’s tomb is located there.

Dr Martinez is looking to react to the opening of the newly discovered mummies at Taposiris Maga in the Chapel 5 documentary, which will air on Thursday.

After removing the first slab of lime, she says: ‘My God, there are two mummies… Look at this wonder.’

Osteoarchaeologist Dr. Lipa Chapo works to conserve two mummies found inside a sealed tomb at Taposiris Maga.

Experts believe that Cleopatra made plans for herself and Athopy to be buried in a temple called Taposiris Maga to mimic the alluring myth of Isis and Osiris.

Cleopatra was the last Pharaoh of Egypt and ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 BC to 30 BC. Cleopatra and her Roman lover Mark Athopy may have been buried at the site 2,000 years ago because of their desire to imitate an accurate prophecy, Dr Martíez believes.

During her lifetime, which spanned from 69 BC to 30 BC, Cleopatra was noted for her seduction and her captivating personality. She famously used her charms to first seduce Julius Caesar into signing Egypt’s alliance with Rome, and then to seduce one of his successors, Marcus Aptopia.

In order to establish herself and Athopy as media rulers of the Egyptian people, she also worked hard to associate them with the myth of Isis and Osiris. According to the myth, Osiris was killed and cut into pieces which were scattered throughout Egypt. After breaking all the pieces and making her husband whole again, Isis was able to resurrect him for a time.

Dr. Gleпп Godeпho and Dr. Kathleenп Martiпez inside the Taposiris Magпa temple near Alexandria in Egypt

Kathlee Martíez, who is leading the excavation, believes the site was strongly associated with the myth of Isis and Osiris, a myth that Cleopatra often attempted to imitate during her lifetime.

Martíez believes that Taposiris Maga was closely associated with the myth, as the flame means “tomb of Osiris.”

The inclusion of ‘Osiris’ could mean that he was open to one of the places where his body was scattered in history. After Mark Athopy committed suicide following the defeat by Octavia, but before her own suicide, Cleopatra laid detailed plans for the site for both of them to be buried there, echoes of the myth, Dr Martíez thinks.

The Temple of Taposiris Maga. The inauguration of the first intact tomb found at Taposiris Maga will take place in Chapel 5 this week.

The interior of the temple of Taposiris Maga, where excavation work is currently underway. The temple was established between 280 and 270 BC.

She previously told National Geographic: ‘Cleopatra negotiated with Octavia to allow her to bury Mark Aptoy in Egypt.

‘She hoped to be buried with him because she wanted to reflect the legend of Isis and Osiris.

«The true meaning of the cult of Osiris is that it grants immortality. After their deaths, the gods would allow Cleopatra to live with Atopy in another form of existence, so that they would have eternal life together.

However, doubts about the theory have been dismissed as other experts believe that Cleopatra was hastily buried in Alexandria itself, the city from where she ruled Egypt until her death, which is believed to have been caused by speech poison.