The video explores the compelling quest of archaeologist Pepe Papacosta who is on a mission to uncover the legendary lost tomb of Alexander the Great within the current urban landscape of Alexandria, Egypt. Pepe combines ancient texts with modern technology in her pursuit, unearthing artifacts, statues, and tunnels that suggest the ancient city's presence buried beneath.

The video takes viewers on a vivid journey through Pepe's archaeological process, highlighting the challenges she faces in excavating the bustling city of Alexandria. Despite setbacks like flooding and subterranean obstacles, her dedication to tracing Alexander's legacy uncovers foundations and road systems that provide clues to the potential site of his royal burial.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. metropolis [məˈtrɑːpəlɪs] - (n.) - A very large and densely populated industrial and commercial city. - Synonyms: (city, megalopolis, urban center)

Alexandria, Egypt. A sprawling metropolis, home to 5 million people and one archaeologist on the quest of a lifetime.

2. excavations [ˌɛkskəˈveɪʃənz] - (n.) - The act of digging, especially by archaeologists, to uncover remains from a former time. - Synonyms: (digging, unearthing, exploration)

Pepe Papa Costa is doing some very innovative excavations.

3. subterranean [ˌsʌbtəˈreɪniən] - (adj.) - Existing, occurring, or done under the earth’s surface. - Synonyms: (underground, belowground, concealed)

It's a subterranean city of the dead.

4. anomalies [əˈnɑːməliz] - (n.) - Something that deviates from what is standard, normal, or expected. - Synonyms: (irregularities, oddities, deviations)

The report shows about 14 anomalies.

5. hewn [hjuːn] - (adj.) - Cut or shaped with hard blows of a heavy cutting instrument like an ax or chisel. - Synonyms: (carved, chiseled, shaped)

In eager haste he went down into the grotto hewn out for a tomb.

6. mummified [ˈmʌməˌfaɪd] - (adj.) - Preserved by embalming and drying in the process practiced by the ancient Egyptians. - Synonyms: (preserved, embalmed, conserved)

Aleander the Great was mummified like the Egyptian pharaohs before him.

7. sarcophagus [sɑːrˈkɑːfəɡəs] - (n.) - A stone coffin, typically adorned with a sculpture or inscription. - Synonyms: (coffin, tomb, casket)

We know from the sources that there was a main chamber in which Alexander was placed in a sarcophagus.

8. labyrinth [ˈlæbərɪnθ] - (n.) - A complicated irregular network of passages or paths in which it is difficult to find one's way; a maze. - Synonyms: (maze, warren, network)

An elaborate underground labyrinth with passageways and tunnels would have formed part of Alexander's tomb complex.

9. catacombs [ˈkætəˌkoʊmz] - (n.) - An underground cemetery with tunnels for tombs. - Synonyms: (crypt, mausoleum, vault)

It is like the catacombs here.

10. seduce [sɪˈdjuːs] - (v.) - To attract powerfully; allure or tempt into a course of action that is often considered inadvisable or wrong. - Synonyms: (entice, lure, tempt)

...and even Napoleon Bonaparte have all been seduced by its mystery.

Finding The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great (Full Episode) - National Geographic

Alexandria, Egypt. A sprawling metropolis, home to 5 million people and one archaeologist on the quest of a lifetime. Pepe Papacosta is hunting for the lost tomb of Alexander the Great. Finding the tomb of Alexander is the dream of every archaeologist. It's the Holy Grail. Alexander led an army 12,000 miles, conquered the known world and became a living God. Pepe is combining ancient manuscripts and modern technology to identify the exact location of his lost city. She's unearthing stunning clues. Greek treasures. This is beautiful. Hidden tunnels, and even a magnificent marble statue thought to be of Alexander himself. Each find leads her closer to the ultimate prize in archaeology.

Pappy might just be the closest archaeologist yet to uncovering the lost tomb of Alexander the Great. If my theory is correct, I think there is a big possibility to find the tomb of Alexander. I'm heading to the city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander himself almost 2,300 years ago. Over the last 20 years, National Geographic archaeologist Fred Hebert has been involved in archaeological discoveries across the world. Pepe Papa Costa is doing some very innovative excavations. She's finding lots of artifacts from the time of Alexander the Great. It's pretty exciting. Pepe has already discovered a treasure that caught the world's attention. It was the last day of the excavation. I was about to give up. They showed me a small white marble in the side wall of the tren. Over 20ft below the surface, her team finds gleaming Greek marble in the muddy soil. There was a possibility to be only a small part of a marble, but the knee appeared, the leg, the second leg, then the body. It was something unbelievable. And then I saw a face very familiar to me. I saw the face of Alexander the Great. It was an amazing moment, maybe the most important moment of my life. I brought him into light again. After 2300 years, Pepe's discovery of the statue creates a buzz around the world, drawing the president of Greece to visit her dig site.

All Greeks are interested about Alexander. All Greeks admire him, even today. He's alive in the soul of the Greeks. Alexander was the reason to become an archaeologist. Alexander is the reason I am here. It's something I cannot control. It comes out of my soul. Alexander the Great is considered one of the finest military leaders of all time. He became a king aged just 20, after his father, Philip II of Macedon, was brutally murdered. In 12 years, he marched his army 12,000 miles, creating a vast empire that spread from Egypt to modern day Pakistan. In 332 BC, Alexander invaded Egypt, becoming pharaoh and a living God. But at the age of just 32, he died under mysterious circumstances in Babylon. After he died, he was mummified, buried in Memphis. Then when the capital moved to the new capital of Alexandria, they dug Alexander up and they created a new tomb for him right in the center of ancient Alexandria.

Then around 350 AD, the history of Alexandria starts to go silent. There's earthquakes, tsunamis, riots in the street. There are no more descriptions of this beautiful royal city. Alexander's tomb goes missing. There have been more than 140 recognized searches for the tomb of Alexander. Archaeologist Howard Carter, Heinrich Schliemann, the man who discovered the ancient city of Troy, and even Napoleon Bonaparte have all been seduced by its mystery. There are ancient references about more or less where he was buried. Pape is studying the Greek and Roman ancient sources for clues to the location of Alexander's final burial place in Egypt. But all were written a few hundred years after his death. We have to rely on these sources. This is the only thing we have. Strabo, the Greek geographer who visited Alexandria the 1st century BC mentions clearly that the tomb of Alexander is here in the city he founded. And also he describes that Alexander was buried in the enclosure of the royal quarter.

The ancient city with a royal quarter that Straba mentions has long since vanished under modern day Alexandria. To find Alexander's tomb, Pepi must first find his lost city. Alexandria is Egypt's premier Mediterranean city at the edge of the Nile delta. Today it covers over 100 square miles, about five times the size of Manhattan. Concealed beneath its streets is the ancient Greek city Alexander founded. It was a great city founded by a great personality. But Alexandria is a difficult place to excavate. Pepe is digging in a public park the size of 17 football fields, one of the few places not covered by the dense urban sprawl.

Salalat Gardens is a huge area. It's about 1 million square feet. No one before explored Salalat properly. Since finding the statue, her team has removed around 20,000 tons of earth, almost twice the weight of the Eiffel Tower. Just be careful, man. Each layer Pepe excavates holds a sealed record of the city's history. She's digging down over 30ft through modern Byzantine and Roman layers. In her hunt for the Greek level from the time of Alexander, Pepe is looking for fragments of Greek influence, clues to help her locate the original ancient city.

Be careful. Nice. It's a porter, but you can see the design, the color, the black blazed. Be careful. Maybe we find the rest. Try this way, this side. Oh, very good. Oh, amazing. It's a female figure. She has wings and gold in the wings. She must be a goddess. I believe it's not from Alexandria. Maybe it is imported from Greece because it's a high level and very early. She's beautiful. Even 2,300 years older but she's beautiful.

To help Pepe in her search for the ancient city, archaeologist Fred Hebert arrives on site. How nice to see you. Thank you for coming. Great to be here. He brings years of international dig experience. It's just amazing. It's a massive, massive excavation. Yes, it's very difficult just to be honest, because of the huge quantity of debris and also the problem of water we have here. We have to pump continuously in order to be able to excavate. Let's go to have a look from we have a stump. Oh good, Mabrook, I'm coming. You see it's a handle, an amphora handle. Very good. Can you clean it? Yes. First amphoras were large clay vessels with handles containing wine. These amphoras used to come imported from Rhodes and Greek islands. Bringing wine to Alexandria, it would have been at least a meter tall, right? Yes. That's a lot of wine. Good quality wine and good quality of wine for sure. Alexandrians were very cheerful, very happy people. They used to drink a lot of wine. Each amphora handle is stamped with the maker's name and date of production.

You see the Greek letters on it? Fantastic. We find the Greek names in the land of Egypt. It's like a message in botan. Looks like you've dug right down to the very foundation of the city, the very streets that Alexander had walked in. Below this layer is soil and bedrock on which the original city was built. Alexander is said to have marked the outlines of the first buildings himself. Here it was built the first Alexandria Huno, the city that was decreed by Alexander the Great himself. Exactly.

Pepe has identified his city. Now she can focus her search for the royal corridor. But the ancient city doesn't give up its secrets easily. It's a matter of minutes to have a distraction here. Alexandria, Egypt.

Archaeologist Pepe Papacosta and her team are digging deep underground beneath the water table. Pumps are running 247 to manage the constant upflow of water out of the ground. The pipe broke. Tell Soki to call Mahmoud, he's there. And a matter of minutes to have a distraction here. You know, the silt laden water clogs the pumps and pipes, building up the pressure each time they fail. Within two hours the site is flooded with nearly 10ft of water, delaying her dig by weeks. I'm so exhausted of this problem. Pepe has uncovered traces of Alexander's lost city. But until the flooding is under control, her hunt for the Royal Quarter is on hold.

We know about the Royal Quarter of Alexandria from the writings of Greek geographer Strabo. That had palaces, it had a library, a museum. It also had a royal burial quarter called the Semma. So our expectations are to find a beautiful and massive road system. And the crossroads right in the center would be the epicenter of the city. It would been the area of the Royal Quarter. That Royal Quarter has never been found. The quantity of water is unbelievable. The pumps stop. We have a kind of a lake here. I always think that water should be a nice thing. It's a blessing. Our life in my life, it's a disaster. But now we managed to decrease the water table. We pump the water 24 hours per day with 16 pumps, eight wells. Look, it's one of them. We have many. I defeated the night. Maybe with the water under control, her team can continue excavating. We are uncovering black stones, even a small piece of a black stone.

Very important for the archaeology of Alexandria because we all know that blackstones is the material that the Roman streets were made of. Fantastic. It's fantastic. Beautiful stones. The part we uncovered is about 25 meters. Can you imagine how many people walked on this, how many chariots, how many horses? Everything happened in this street. We have to understand what is the relation between this road with the rest of our discoveries. Roman roads were often rebuilt on top of earlier Greek streets. Pepe returns to one of her key historical guides, a plan of the ancient city. This map was made by the Egyptian astronomer Mahmoud Bey el Falaki in 1866. At that time, the streets and a lot of buildings, ancient buildings, were obvious. The map shows Alexandria had two main streets, the Canopic Way, nearly 100ft across, running east west, transected by another main street, R1, running north south.

This is a satellite map of modern Alexandria. And we are exactly here. These are the Salalat Gardens. We made a transparency version of the map of Mahmoud Bay. The maps are lined up using the coastline as a guide. When we line the old map with the modern one, the result for me is fantastic. We see clearly that the crossroads of the two broad streets of ancient Alexandria are very close to the area we are excavating. From interpreting Strabo's writings, she knows the royal quarter containing the tomb of Alexander was to the north of the central crossroads. Pepe now has proof the crossroads are within a few feet of the Shalalat Gardens. I believe that the road we uncovered is the first parallel road to the main Canopic street.

Pepys Road L2 runs through the north side of the Shalalot Gardens. Pepys Road is a game changer in the study of Alexandria because Pepe has actually found one of the main roads described by Strabo. That puts the whole description of classical Alexandria in a frame of reference where we can now say we are sitting in the royal quarters of Alexandria. Pepe has excavated deeper and this part of Alexandria than anyone. She has revealed Alexander's ancient city. Now she has rediscovered the royal quarter. She believes hidden within it lies the tomb of Alexander the Great.

And that's not all. After Alexander died, his empire was split between his trusted generals. Ptolemy became the ruler and pharaoh of Egypt. Ptolemy's dynasty lasted 275 years and more than 10 generations. Each ruler buried themselves around Alexander in a vast cemetery within the royal quarter. They wanted to be close to a God for eternity. Inside of Strabo, this royal precinct is a literal valley of the kings. Not a single Ptolemaic king has been found yet. Tomb of Alexander is the holy grail of archaeology. It's the dream of all the archaeologists of the world.

In her hunt for the tomb of Alexander, archaeologist Pepi Papacosta has made a discovery greater than she could have ever imagined. She has rediscovered the royal quarter of ancient Alexandria within which lies the royal cemetery. Classical sources tell us that Alexander is buried here surrounded by the last pharaohs of Egypt. I'm very happy because I believe that there are a lot of possibilities that we are on the right side. Pepe has exclusive permission to excavate anywhere across the million square feet of the Shalalat Gardens. It's an enormous undertaking. An archaeologist needs a lifetime. To dig at Shellalat Gardens.

We need the support of technology. National Geographic is going to support us and help us to use new technology. A cutting edge geophysical method called electrical resistivity tomography will produce a detailed picture of what lies beneath the Shalalot Gardens. The findings will help guide where to dig next. Cables are laid across the gardens and the method passes electricity deep into the ground by taking hundreds of readings. The relative solidity of the earth below is plotted onto digital maps. Looser areas of sand or soil contrast with dense areas like solid stone. The outlined remains of a building or even a tomb.

In the end we can have an idea if it is big, if it is small, how, how deep it is. The survey Will take The specialist team 10 days to complete. Lucan's Pharsalia is the only detailed description of Alexander's tomb that survives from the ancient world. A visit by Julius Caesar. In eager haste he went down into the grotto hewn out for a tomb. There lies the mad son of Philip of Pella, Alexander. So his tomb was likely to have a subterranean chamber to maintain a cool and constant temperature all year.

So we're now entering the great tomb of Common Shafa. It really is incredible here. With the royal quarter identified, Fred wants to find out what Alexander's tomb and those of the pharaohs buried around him might look like. You imagine what it was like when they carried their dead down here. It's at least 60ft down. I can't imagine trying to bring a body down here. Archaeologist Maria Nilsson is showing Fred the tombs of the Greek citizens who lived in ancient Alexandria. It's a subterranean city of the dead. It reminds very much of a Greek temple, doesn't it? It really does. Typical of Alexandria, these rock cut tombs. So here you have some great examples of how Egyptian art meets the newcomers. Here on the frieze you got the winged sun disc which is traditional for Egyptian art.

But if we enter a little bit closer here you can clearly see the Greek elements. Yes, the Medusa. Incredible. So let's now enter into the main sanctuary itself and we got a unique scene. Well, it looks like a traditional mummification scene. Indeed. Yes. What we have here is a depiction of Osiris which is a representation of the dead himself. Yes. You got Anubis who is performing the mummification and to just support the entire mummification process. You got the canopic jars, they would put the kidneys and the liver. Yes, indeed. The writing of historian Quintus Curtius Rufus tells us that Alexander the Great was mummified like the Egyptian pharaohs before him. It's not Alexander the Great's tomb, but surely his tomb must share some connections with this type of tomb.

subterranean, carved with a number of different styles? Something like it, yes. I'm certain he would have included elements of the Egyptian culture too. We know from the sources that there was a main chamber in which Alexander was placed in a sarcophagus. This is the legacy, putting Egyptian and Greek art together. This is the legacy of Alexander the Great. It is like the catacombs here. An elaborate underground labyrinth with passageways and tunnels would have formed part of Alexander's tomb complex.

Back at the Shalalot Gardens, Pepe's team has discovered something hidden in the subsurface. We just found this construction and we realized that there is a tunnel inside. It is interesting to to have a look. Oh, it's man made. Oh, very interesting. Interesting. I would like to be inside, but I forgot my bathing suit. Oh my God. New adventures in this excavation. We have to go inside, but it's very difficult. We will ask for volunteers. I think we don't know how long it is, how deep it is. So it's better to have some precautions. And Ramadan, if you feel afraid, you come out. Okay. Be careful, please. Maybe it leads to something else. Something interesting. We'll see.

There is only a shallow pocket of air for her team to breathe. Hundreds of tons of earth lie above the passage that could collapse at any moment. Everything okay? You have to speak to us, to talk to us. Everything okay? I wish it could lead to a secret door to her chamber. It's very long stops or it goes on. After 25ft there is a major problem. The tunnel has collapsed. There's a lot of debris. It's blocked with a pile of rubble covered in mysterious scorch marks. There were also fragments of burnt rope. It looks like this passageway has been sealed for hundreds of years. It's not safe to excavate it more due to the tones of soil, the street and also a huge modern building. After 12 years of work on the site, it's a frustrating setback for Pepe.

Very difficult day. But I'm not ready to say that there is nothing here or is something big. I'm optimist. We keep going. I cannot stop. I have to go on. Alexander wasn't born with the title Great, but he had a strong lineage. He was the son of a powerful king, Philip II of Macedon. Philip was buried in a town called Verhena with incredible finds. This is one of the most amazing archaeological finds of the 1970s. His skeleton was found in an opulent golden coffin. There were wreaths made out of solid gold. Simply masterpieces of art. If these stunning items were found in his father's tomb, what might Alexander's own burial hold?

The Greek geophysical team deliver Pepe the final results of the survey in the Shalalot Gardens. The report shows about 14 anomalies. That means archaeological targets. Out of the 14 points that the geophysical survey suggested, I decided to start from the biggest one. We call it E3B. The largest of the 14 anomalies, E3B is 800ft from Pepe's current site. Before assigning a dig team, some preliminary exploration is needed. The Next step would be drillings in order to be sure that the suggested points were correct. This is the National Geographic borescope.

We're going to put it down into one of the boreholes here so we will have a chance to look down inside at what Pepe is finding. It's a very fine, high resolution camera on a long fiber optic. It's actually developed to inspect 747 airplane engines. And our engineers have adapted it for archaeological investigation. It has this incredible robotic end here that can look in every direction. Oh boy. We'll start looking around. Okay, can you go up? You want up and go to the side here? There are white signs of limestone, but I'm not sure if it is a construction or small random stones. Limestone is not naturally found here. Prized for for its aesthetic quality by the Greeks. It came from mines around 30 miles outside the city. They may be seeing fragments of the original building stones of Alexandria.

We can look around and have a pretty good idea that there's stones down there, but it's not enough, is it? No, of course we have to excavate absolutely. But for sure we know that we have to dig here. While work at her main dig site continues, Pepe splits her team and begins to excavate the large anomaly E3B. This is actually a culmination of Pepe's obsession here in Alexandria. She started nearly 23 years ago and here we are in the royal quarter of the city of Alexandria 2,300 years ago. She knows that she has X marks the spot with Roman road. Right. In her other excavations.

We know she's going to find something, we don't know what it is. Pepe Papa Costa is hunting for the lost tomb of Alexander the Great. She's identified the site of his ancient city and confirmed the royal quarter within it. A team works at the main site while 800ft to the east, a second team digs down to reach the largest anomaly E3B. They are already finding intriguing clues. See, it's plaster, but there is color. Ah, let's see. Beautiful. Blue. Red. Yes. Great, great. Yeah. This is the type of the Macedonian tombs decorations. You know that plaster with this intense blue color is thought to be the world's first artificial pigment created by a calcium copper silicate. M.

The same pigment is used to decorate Alexander's father's tomb. It is interesting because we find a lot of small things. Of course. Yes. Oh, give it to me. Oh, Ibrahim, can you bring more marble? This is white marble. This is real marble, Greek white marble. Well, it's really unusual to see this here in Egypt, especially in the delta of the Nile. There's no stone and there's especially no Aegean marble like this. Very rare to find Greek marble, a white marble in Alexandria. It's just a good sign, just great sign. Even with a large team of workers removing around 400 tons of soil, sand and mud will take weeks.

Fred travels back to the US while work continues. It's the end of the dig seat and unseasonal tropical thunderstorms are drenching the site. It is beginning of December so the weather is getting worse now. Most of the time this is a problem for us because it can create a danger. Soil can collapse. Workers can sleep on the soil. So it's not easy to work under the rain. But we wait rain to stop and we continue. Once the rain clears, the team realize the E3B excavation site is under 4ft of water. The work was very difficult this time because we had to fight with water above and water below. We went very deep. The soil is very fragile and I was afraid that it could collapse. And also the water level, that is always a problem. A powerful pump is lowered into the flooded digit.

This anomaly could be many things. Could be a building, could be a monument, it could be even a tomb. I feel excited, but also very nervous. Maybe it will be something great, maybe it will be nothing. Fred is back in Egypt and heading to the E3B dig site. Pepe and her team are inches away from uncovering the large anomaly. 25ft below the modern day surface. Welcome back. It's great to see you. Nice to see you. My goodness, look at this. Yes, It's a hard work this time. Wow. So huge. Yeah. How deep are you now? 23ft, 25ft? Yes. It's an enormous amount of work. Most difficult thing issue is the water level. As all the time. As always. Yeah, as always. That's going to be very exciting to see what's underneath there. Should we go take a look? Yes, of course. Great.

Look at this. Finally we can see the bottom of this incredible tren. Look, sandstone, which is the natural bedrock of Alexandria. So that's the natural bedrock of Alexandria. Exactly. But there is a human activity here. This is a constructed layer, right, Pepe? It is exactly. It is constructed. The large anomaly picked up by the electrical survey is not the underground tunnel or chamber that Pepe hoped to find. What do you think it is, Pepe? According to my opinion, this should be a kind of a defensive ditch for the Islamic walls of East Alexandria. Incredible, Incredible. So the City of Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great, has changed and changed through the centuries. And here it's clear, a thousand years later, they dug a giant moat to go around another wall of the city.

In this section of the Shalalot Gardens, the Greek Ptolemaic layer is missing. It appears that this part of the Royal Quarter was totally destroyed as later inhabitants remodeled the city. I hoped, of course, that it was something different, a construction or another material. Do you still believe that the tomb of Alexander the Great is here? The only logical place to be buried at that time was in this area. Dig site E3 has not yielded Alexander the Great's tomb, as Pepe had hoped, but 800ft to the west. Her second team has continued excavating the original site. And 30ft below the modern day city, she discovers the most extraordinary find of all.

So you see these big stones, massive. Yes. We took out two of them, something very difficult, and we realized that under there is nothing more. It's the bedrock of Alexandria. Let me show you how big this foundation is. It's a huge. All this line keeps going and going and going. Do you have any idea thought how much further it's going to go? We are about 200ft or less without arriving to the end of a single building. Yes. And it goes on. Clearly, these are very large foundation stones for what would have been a very large building. What do you think it was? Yes, this is a good question. In the Royal Quarter, they were the most important public buildings of Alexandria. So I'm sure that this building should be one of these famous buildings of the past.

The vast foundation serves as a guide to recreate what this giant Greek building may have looked like. Constructed in ice, white marble and limestone, this would have been one of many temples, palaces and tombs filling the Royal quarter of Alexandria. Alexandria, Alexander City became one of the most breathtaking sights of the ancient world. The search for the tomb of Alexander the Great is particularly special. It's a great mystery, but it's also great working with a scholar who really is persistent, who really follows the story and doesn't take no for an answer. She's made incredible discoveries. Ptolemaic foundation walls that nobody's ever seen before. She's correlated that with a Roman road system that was described in the 1860s and then sort of lost to history. She's excavated deeper in Alexandria than just about anybody.

Pepe's statue, now fully restored, has pride of place in the Alexandria National Museum. This statue changed my life. I never could imagine that I could find a statue of Alexander and very proud. I've uncovered his city. I've confirmed the royal quarter, and now I'm going to continue my search. Pepe has another 13 anomalies to dig up scattered throughout the Shalalot Gardens. If there's anything I've learned from Pepe, it's that you have to keep trying. You have to keep going. Has she found it yet? Not yet. But I don't think there's anybody who's gotten closer. It's a amazing feeling for an archaeologist. This is a gift. So I don't have the right now to stop. I have to sa.

Archaeology, Egypt, Alexander The Great, Ancient History, Discovery, Technology, National Geographic