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Queen Cleopatra is one of the most famous rulers of Ancient Egypt, and it has a mysterious history full of interesting stories. To know more about this powerful queen, you need to check the below facts of her history and the excavation journey to find her missing tomb.
1- Cleopatra became the queen of Egypt after her father’s death, Ptolemy XII in 51 BCE, but her two brothers joined her until Octavian defeated them with his Roman army and Egypt became under the Roman domination.
2- Queen Cleopatra was the first Egyptian women to rule Egypt, but with family origins from Macedonian Greece. Her father was one of Alexander the Great’s generals. She is now famous for being the most powerful and romantic queen during the Ancient Egypt’s history and the first Ptolemaic ruler that could learn the Egyptian language.
3- Cleopatra is the beauty icon in history, but she also had many other advantages that made her more beautiful and powerful. She spoke more than 12 different languages, she also learned in mathematics, philosophy, oratory and astronomy. You’re standing in front of a great and powerful ruler for a great country like Egypt.
4- The power of queen Cleopatra was obvious in her insisting on controlling the throne of Egypt. She married her first sibling Ptolemy XIII, but with the assistant of Julius Caesar, she was able to defeat him and win the throne. Then she married her other sibling Ptolemy XIV, but she murdered him, so her son could rule in 41 B.C. She did everything to maintain her rule in Egypt.
5- Cleopatra lived in Rome for a while with her beloved son during the era of Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. She was the love of Caesar, and after his death she left Rome, but her hairstyle and jewelries became an icon for fashion in Rome. The ‘Cleopatra look’ was a fashion trend that all the women in Rome used to it.
6- The second love story of Cleopatra was with Mark Antony in 41 B.C. Despite the political benefits they take from this relationship, they were enjoying living these times together. Cleopatra needed Mark Antony to maintain her crown in Egypt, and Antony want to access Egypt’s resources. It was a balance relationship in both sides, the political and emotional. They had so much fun together until they end it with a happy marriage and 3 children.
7- Because of the relationship between Cleopatra and Antony, Octavian considered this as a betrayed from Antony and declared war on Cleopatra in 32 B.C. Cleopatra led lots of Egyptian warships alongside Antony’s fleet, but this wasn’t enough comparing to Octavian’s navy which led them to a huge defeat. After this famous war, both Antony and Cleopatra took their own lives as they said Antony stabbed himself and Cleopatra was bitten by an Egyptian cobra and in other stories, she took a kind of poison through her hair comb or using a poisoned pin.
Finding the Cleopatra’s tomb was something interesting for all the Egyptologists who care about the excavation in Egypt. In the middle of the excavations work at Taposiris Magna which is located in northern Egypt, they were able to find a huge tunnel with almost 4,200 feet long and about 42 feet in depth. Kathleen Martinez was the leader of the archaeologist team who was responsible for this excavation work in Egypt at that time. They found more than 1,500 ancient monuments, like statues, busts, and a lot of different golden coins that’s related to Alexander the Great, Queen Cleopatra and the Ptolemies. What makes this discovery interesting is that the Tunnel leads to the Mediterranean Sea, and the scientists believe that due to the earthquakes along the years, parts of this tunnel were destroyed.
After almost 20 years of excavation work, the archaeologist Kathleen Martinez believes she could be very close to discover the tomb for the most famous queen of Ancient Egypt, Queen Cleopatra. She has found many clues and proofs to reach a conclusion, but until today they will keep discovering especially underwater to confirm their discovery for Cleopatra’s tomb as it will be the excavation of the century.
