When Alexander died in Babel in 323 B.C.E., eight years after leaving Siwa, the governor of Egypt, Ptolemy, 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, and some 20 years later, to the new capital Alexandria. There it remained until disappearing when the Christian emperor Theodosius issued an edict abolishing all other religious temples and icons.  Some speculate that Alexander’s remains may have been finally transported to Siwa for 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, and whether this son of Amon was ultimately buried here, remains a mystery.