The story of the tomb of Alexander is a real adventure. Untangling the countless legends from the facts, interpreting incomplete and contradictory historical sources and delving into the myth is like moving towards an enigmatic and elusive goal similar to a mirage in the desert.
With the rise of Christianity, the tomb of Alexander, erected in the city that bore his name and an object of veneration and visits for seven long centuries, fell into oblivion in just a few years. Perhaps the result of natural causes or acts of war, perhaps a sort of damnatio memoriae, perhaps for all these reasons combined, all trace of the tomb was lost. However, the ghost of its founder continued to hover over Alexandria, and interest was dramatically revived during Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt when a number of archaeologists and adventurers and treasure hunters, as well as many ordinary people, began trying to reveal the whereabouts of the body of the greatest leader of all time. On the trail of a myth and illusion that arose with death of the invincible hero himself, a young man of unparalleled charisma, and the embodiment of the splendour and savagery, as well as the many contradictions, of the human race. The illusion that, if one day we could reach and, who knows, maybe even touch it, we would, perhaps, finally understand.
Valerio Massimo Manfredi who has used the profile and exploits of Alexander the Great to carve a vivid and brilliant image in his trilogy Aléxandros, takes us on a journey to the heart of the enigma by combining his experience and expertise as an archaeologist to gives us the engaging and passionate narrative of a great novelist, showing us places and relics of antiquity to recreate a world teeming with life, boundless ambition and great dreams.