When Alexander died in Babel in 323 B.C.E., Ptolemy, the governor of Egypt at the time, went to Palestine to meet the convoy but did not fulfill Alexander’s wish to be buried in Siwa.

Instead, he rerouted the procession and transported Alexander’s tomb of gold and bronze to Memphis, then capital of Egypt. Twenty years later, Alexander was moved to the new capital, Alexandria. There it remained, until it disappeared when the Christian emperor Theodosius issued an edict abolishing all other religious temples and icons.  Now, there are speculations that Alexander the Great may have ultimately been transported to Siwa for his final burial.

The disputed Tomb of Alexander is a scattered heap of ruins about 15 km west of the Temple of the Oracle.  Dating to the first century B.C.E., it is the only monument in Siwa built in the Doric style, and once stood 6 meters high and 16 meters long, though it appears to have at some point collapsed in an earthquake.

Greek archeologist Liana Souvaltzi, whose excavation of the site was halted in the mid-1990s, suggested it holds a tomb constructed to house Alexander’s remains. Whether it does or not still remains a mystery.