The bathroom of the conqueror of the ancient world was found
The bathroom of Alexander the Great was discovered 2300 years later: archaeologists discovered a room in Greece where the young ancient king washed himself. Archaeologists have discovered a bathroom used by Alexander in the Egai Palace. This palace symbolized the golden age of antiquity, witnessed the assassination of King Philip II and the coronation of his 20-year-old son Alexander the Great.
Big mound Egai. Photo: Wikipedia.org.
Located in the ceremonial center of the ancient Macedonian kingdom, the 15,000 square meter Aigai Palace is three times the size of the Parthenon, with its city walls, courtyard, temples, sanctuaries, theater, palaestra and tombs.
According to the Daily Mail, archaeologists have now discovered the palaestra and the bathroom where young Alexander bathed in the company of his childhood friend, future deputy commander-in-chief Hephaestion.
The discovery, made in the royal city of Aigai, in the modern city of Vergina, in northern Greece, was featured in the final episode of Bettany Hughes's Channel 4 series Treasures of the World, which airs on May 11.
“This is the most unusual sight to watch as the excavations and reconstruction of Egai continue,” says the presenter. “There’s a huge drain carved into the rock and a shared bathroom.” Here, probably, Alexander the Great bathed with his companions – his famous favorite Hephaestion and all those young people who then traveled with him on campaigns, and after his death quarreled over his empire. They went through all these initiation rites. They were incredibly active in the gym, fighting and wrestling. They were trained to hunt… His bedroom has not yet been identified, but all the rooms of the palace are located there. So, I haven't entered Alexander's bedroom yet, but I have ended up in his bathroom.'
The son of the Macedonian king Philip II and the Epirus queen Olympias, Alexander was one of the most ambitious military leaders of all time, who famously declared that he wanted to become “king of the world”, recalls the Daily Mail.
Taught by a world-renowned philosopher Aristotle, he and his boy friends ascended the throne after his father was killed by a bodyguard during the wedding of his sister Cleopatra.
Since his reign in 336 BC. and until his death 13 years later, Alexander the Great built one of the largest empires the world had ever seen, stretching from Greece to Egypt and extending deep into the Indian subcontinent.
Now, after a 16-year project costing 20 million euro, a team of archaeologists restored the mosaics of the 1,400 square meter banquet hall, the marble floors and colonnades of the palace and discovered hundreds of valuable artifacts.
Bettany was also given access to the tomb of Alexander's sister, Thessaloniki, who was buried in the sacked Aigai in ancient times. “This place was incredibly beautiful,” she added.
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