Though ancient authors such as Strabo, Leo Africanus, and others described the tomb, its location relative to the modern city remains a mystery. The tomb's murky location hasn't kept archaeologists from searching for it. Records exist of more than 140 officially sanctioned excavations, all of which failed.

As of March 2026, the tomb of Alexander the Great has not been found, and it remains one of archaeology's most enduring mysteries. While there have been several "near-misses" and high-profile claims over the last century—including a 2021 claim in the Siwa Oasis and ongoing excavations in the Shallalat Gardens of Alexandria—no physical evidence has definitively linked a site to the Macedonian King. In 2024 and 2025, advanced muon tomography and satellite imaging were used to scan the foundations of the Nabi Daniel Mosque in Alexandria, which many historians believe sits atop the ancient "Soma" (the royal mausoleum). While these scans revealed previously unknown subterranean chambers, the Egyptian government has been hesitant to authorize invasive excavations in such a religiously sensitive and urbanized area. For now, the "body that conquered the world" remains lost to time, likely buried under centuries of urban layers in Alexandria or perhaps destroyed during the tumultuous religious transitions of the 4th and 5th centuries.