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Alexander's Tomb: The Two-Thousand Year Obsession to Find the Lost Conquerer
by Nicholas J. Saunders
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Basic Books (2006-07-03)
ISBN: 046507202X
EAN: 9780465072026
Dewy Decimal #: 938.07092
Hardcover: 320 pages
SKU: 50501*
Condition: As New
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Alexander the Great is a towering figure in world history, but despite our long-held fascination with him, his burial site is unknown. Alexander’s Tomb is the epic tale of the ongoing quest to unlock one of the world’s great mysteries.
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Customer Reviews
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Over rated.
Rating  (1)
Date: 2008-03-22
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Verbose, repititious, boring. Inferior illustrations. Ms in need of an editor. Fascinating subject worked to death by the text.
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Must read the first 20%, skip the rest
Rating  (2)
Date: 2007-10-01
0 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Saunder's picked a great subject and goes begening is great. After a while he gets a bit boring. He should have written the book about the life of Alexander and that would have been good. The tomb thing kind of looses steam. Even with the life of Alexander, he seems to think of the man so highly that he forgets what a butcher Alexander was. But then, Alexander won and the rules make him a hiro. Saunders shortchanges Iran and seems to not get into the skin of Alexander
Think of what it would be like to be Alexander. I don't know how many legends we know about Alexander's birth existed back then but we do know that Olympia never tired of telling her son of his lineage to Achilles and Phillip traced his lineage to Hercules and Dionysus. Then at the age of 13 Alexander goes to study under Aristotle.
Let's see. How would this be in our time? Your favorite aunt on mother's side is Queen Victoria, your uncle on father's side is the president of United States, Einstein, out of his love for you invited you to stay at his place in Princeton and is now your full time friend, mentor and teacher. You go on vacation to Brazil with Richard Feynman.
What is his childhood activity? It seems that he was busy when he was young. Translated into our language; his parents paid a lot of attention to his education. Did they see Education as we see it? Read the first part of the book, skip the rest.
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The Fascinating Story of Alexander's Tomb
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-04-10
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
The first couple of chapters of this book briefly present the highlights of Alexander's life, accomplishments and ultimately his death. The remainder is about Alexander's corpse, mummy and tombs (he had more than one) and what has and may have happened to them throughout the ages. The story is quite fascinating and full of uncertainty, speculation, false leads and wishful thinking; this is mainly due to the lack of ancient documents that clearly describe what happened to Alexander's body and his "final" resting place during the course of time. The writing style is quite engaging, clear and authoritative. However, for some, the many ancient names and places that are mentioned in the earlier parts of the book can be a bit confusing. Fortunately, the author has included glossaries at the end that the reader may refer to as needed. This intriguing book will likely be of most interest to history and archaeology buffs.
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Engrossing Archeological Mystery
Rating (4)
Date: 2007-04-03
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Saunders does a good job in laying out the facts in the mystery of what became of one of the Holy Grails of Archeology, the search for the Tomb of Alexander the Great. He gives us a breif history of the life and death of Alexander and how his General Ptolomy used possession of his body to legitimize his claim to the throne of the Pharoes of Egypt.
He give us a glimpse of how the building of the Tomb by Ptolomy and his descendants built the Conqueror's namesake city Alexandria into one of the marvels of the ancient world. People traveled from all points of the Hellenic then Roman World to view the Tomb.
The location of the tomb was lost during the dark ages. Saunders postulates several possible scenarios for what became of the grave. He also records several incidents over the years involving people obcessed with its discovery.
Overall an enjoyable book for people interested in History or Archeology
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How Alexander's Unknown Tomb Still Lives
Rating (4)
Date: 2007-01-06
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Entertaining book, no doubt. How the remains of Alexander, his mummy and the place where it lied trough centuries until it disappeared of common knowledge and historic testimonies, are and were very alive trough old and current politics, but also how the obsession to find his body still pervades the mind of scholars and laymen, all of that is certainly a tale worthy of a book and this one fulfill the task very well.
Saunder deliver the merchandise. We see a parade of scholars, amateurs, crazy or deranged people of all description, fake histories, rumors and archaeological discoveries trying to say the last word, but we also see the politics of his age, all kind of kings messing around this famous corpse, making use of it to legitimate patched kingdoms with an artful mixing of myth and legend.
A worthy reading and at last the thought that the aura of Alexander's tomb will vanish -as happened with the Titanic- the very same day it is discovered. Tombs of famous people only lives in imagination if far from museum life.
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