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Archaeologists are to search three sites in Egypt that they say may contain the tomb of doomed lovers Anthony and Cleopatra. Excavation at the sites, which are near a temple west of the coastal city of Alexandria, is due to begin next week. Teams working in the area said the recent discovery of tombs containing 10 mummies suggested that Anthony and Cleopatra might be buried close by.

A flamboyant archeologist known worldwide for his trademark Indiana Jones hat believes he has identified the site where Cleopatra is buried. Now, with a team of 12 archeologists and 70 excavators, Zahi Hawass, 60, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, has begun the search for her tomb. In addition, after a breakthrough two weeks ago, Hawass hopes to find Cleopatra's lover, the Roman general Mark Antony, sharing her last resting place at the site of a temple, the Taposiris Magna, 28 miles west of Alexandria.

Egypt: Tomb of Cleopatra and lover to be uncovered Cairo, 24 April(AKI) - Archaeologists have revealed plans to uncover the 2000 year-old tomb of ancient Egypt's most famous lovers, Cleopatra and the Roman general Mark Antony later this year. Zahi Hawass, prominent archaeologist and director of Egypt's superior council for antiquities announced a proposal to test the theory that the couple were buried together. He discussed the project in Cairo at a media conference about the ancient pharaohs. Hawass said that the remains of the legendary Egyptian queen and her Roman lover, Mark Antony, were inside a temple called Tabusiris...

LONG before Shakespeare portrayed her as history’s most exotic femme fatale, Cleopatra was revered throughout the Arab world — for her brain. Medieval Arab scholars never referred to the Egyptian queen’s appearance, and they made no mention of the dangerous sensuality which supposedly corrupted Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Instead they marvelled at her intellectual accomplishments: from alchemy and medicine to philosophy, mathematics and town planning, a new book has claimed. Even Elizabeth Taylor, who famously played the title role in the 1963 epic Cleopatra, would have struggled to inject sex appeal into this queen. Arab writers depict Cleopatra’s court...

There is more than one reason to be wary today. It’s Super Tuesday II and, yes, it is the Ides of March - the day Julius Caesar was assassinated by a coalition of his friends and family. Butt that’s not the only significant political take-down that took place on March 15; in 1917 Czar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate his throne thus ending the 304-year-old Romanov dynasty that ushered in Bolshevik rule. He and his family are taken captive and later executed before a firing squad.So a little heads up for politicians and proletariats alike: when the people finally...

Explanation: Today, February 29th, is a leap day - a relatively rare occurrence. In 46 BC, Julius Caesar, featured here in a self-decreed minted coin, created a calendar system that added one leap day every four years. Acting on advice by Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes, Caesar did this to make up for the fact that the Earth's year is slightly more than 365 days. In modern terms, the time it takes for the Earth to circle the Sun is slightly more than the time it takes for the Earth to rotate 365 times (with respect to the Sun -- actually we...

Dutch archaeologists claim they have proof Roman emperor Julius Caesar spent time in what is now present day the Netherlands, after finding remains of a battle site near Oss in Brabant. They say they have found the location where Caesar fought against two German tribes in 55 BC and that this is the first battle field in the Netherlands. Archaeologist Nico Roymans of Amsterdam's VU University, says this is the first time the presence of Julius Caesar on Dutch soil has been proved. Until now, the site of the battle, which Caesar describes in his account of the Gallic...

Archaeologists from TVAS have unearthed the grave of a warrior who died at around the time of Caesar's Gallic Wars, in the 50s BC... The Iron Age people of this area were in essence pro-Roman, and the Emperor Claudius, a century later, launched an invasion, initially, to restore the local king Verica to his throne. Our deceased does not seem rich enough to have been a king, but his weaponry, and likely date of death, suggest he may have been one of the mercenaries Caesar claims were accustomed to fight for the Gauls against him, which he used as one...

An international team is using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) modelling to assess Julius Caesar's account of his war with a Celtic tribe. According to Caesar, more than a quarter of a million Helvetii were settled in the Swiss plateau before they decided to abandon their territory and invade Gaul in 58 BCE. In his Gallic Wars he says the Helvitii were running out of food. UWA archaeologist Tom Whitley is developing a GIS model to test Caesar's population estimate and is testing geophysical techniques to see if they can detect signs of the migration and war. He is using the...

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears. Earlier this week, a 38-year-old man dressed as Julius Caesar was arrested after allegedly channeling his inner tyrant and fighting with San Francisco cops in the Richmond District. According to police, the incident happened at about 3:20 a.m. on Sunday when the suspect had hopped a ride with a Lyft driver at 26th Avenue and Geary Boulevard. The Lyft driver called the cops after the fake Julius Caesar allegedly made drunken advances toward him, making things a little uncomfortable in the car. Police arrived at the scene where they found the suspect just...

The temple built by Romulus to celebrate the hand of Jupiter giving Roman troops their unstoppable force has been found at the foot of the Palatine Hill, Italian archaeologists say. The ruins of the shrine to Jupiter Stator (Jupiter the Stayer), believed to date to 750 BC, were found by a Rome University team led by Andrea Carandini. "We believe this is the temple that legend says Romulus erected to the king of the gods after the Romans held their ground against the furious Sabines fighting to get their women back after the famous Rape (abduction)," Carandini said in the...

The rich heritage of Tunisia, maybe the only place where the Arab Spring stands a chance Modern-day Tunisians, more Westernized than most Arabs, see themselves as descendants of the great Carthaginian general who invaded Italy. The Arab Spring began in Sidi Bouzid, a small Tunisian town, at the end of 2010. In a desperate protest against the corrupt and oppressive government that had made it impossible for him to earn a living, food-cart vendor Mohamed Bouazizi stood before City Hall, doused himself with gasoline, and lit a match. His suicide seeded a revolutionary storm that swept the countryside and eventually...

Spot Where Julius Caesar Was Stabbed Discovered Archaeologists believe they have found the first physical evidence of the spot where Julius Caesar died, according to a new Spanish National Research Council report. Caesar, the head of the Roman Republic, was stabbed to death by a group of rival Roman senators on March 14, 44 B.C, the Ides of March. The assassination is well-covered in classical texts, but until now, researchers had no archaeological evidence of the place where it happened. Now, archaeologists have unearthed a concrete structure nearly 10 feet wide and 6.5 feet tall (3 meters by 2 meters)...

A concrete structure of three meters wide and over two meters high, placed by order of Augustus (adoptive son and successor of Julius Caesar) to condemn the assassination of his father, has given the key to the scientists. This finding confirms that the General was stabbed right at the bottom of the Curia of Pompey while he was presiding, sitting on a chair, over a meeting of the Senate. Currently, the remains of this building are located in the archaeological area of Torre Argentina, right in the historic centre of the Roman capital... Classical sources refer to the closure (years...

Being the only true and reliable account ever published; taken from the Roman "Daily Evening Fasces," of the date of that tremendous occurrence. Nothing in the world affords a newspaper reporter so much satisfaction as gathering up the details of a bloody and mysterious murder and writing them up with aggravating circumstantiality. He takes a living delight in this labor of love--for such it is to him, especially if he knows that all the other papers have gone to press, and his will be the only one that will contain the dreadful intelligence. A feeling of regret has often come...

Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903), the greatest classical historian of the nineteenth century, was born in Garding, Schleswig, the son of a Protestant minister. He read law and classics at Kiel from 1838-43, and after a few years in France and Italy and a short career in journalism, he became a professor of law at the University of Leipzig. His involvement in the revolution of 1848-49 led to his dismissal in 1850. After holding academic positions at the universities of Zürich and Breslau he was appointed to the chair of Ancient History at the University of Berlin in 1858. He was permanent...

oooooooooo....... It's the Ides of March.

Thanks (I think) to Ace of Spades for pointing out a 1973 video of William Shatner singing Harry Chapin's "Taxi" on the Dinah Shore show.  If that's not enough for you, have a gander at multiple William Shatners singing Elton John's "Rocketman."If you're really brave, watch Shatner rap something about Julius Caesar.For an encore, see this music video set to a excerpt of Shatner singing "Lucy in the sky with Diamonds."Don't ever say that I don't bring you guys true entertainment.

Two of my ministers have regularly conducted “mini-sermons” for the children in the church. When they do that, they demonstrate a universal truth. No one really understands a subject until he can explain it in plain English to a ten year old. I think the question of appointing new Justices to the Supreme Court cries out for that treatment. The Fry Cook Rule may provide the answer. One member of the Supreme Court has already resigned, Justice O’Connor. Three others may not be long behind her, Chief Justice Rehnquist, and Justices Ginsburg and Stevens. I won’t repeat what I’ve said...

No, this is not a blonde joke. If you want one of those, go to this week’s Humor File. Cleopatra was in fact a blonde. That’s because she was not Egyptian. She was a Macedonian Greek, with hair as blonde as Alexander’s. Alexander conquered Egypt in 332 BC, then went on to subdue all of the Middle East. When he died nine years later, his just-conquered empire was fought over and carved up by his generals. The one who ended up running Egypt was Ptolemy (367-283 BC). Declaring himself Pharaoh, he founded the Ptolemaic Dynasty, with twelve Ptolemies in succession,...