Ancient Egypt
Where is Cleopatra's tomb?
Ancient writers claim that Cleopatra VIIand her lover were buried together in a tomb after their deaths in 30 B.C. However, the location of the tomb remains a mystery. In 2010, Egypt conducted excavations at a site near Alexandria now called Taposiris Magna, which contains a number of tombs dating to the era when Cleopatra VII ruled Egypt. While many interesting archaeological discoveries were made, Cleopatra VII's tomb was not among them. Archaeologists have noted that even if Cleopatra's tomb does survive to this day, it may be heavily plundered and unidentifiable.
Ancient Greece
Is there a City of Atlantis?
Writing in the fourth century B.C., the Greek philosopher Plato told a story of a land named Atlantisthat existed in the Atlantic Ocean and supposedly conquered much of Europe and Africa in prehistoric times. In the story, the prehistoric Athenians strike back against Atlantis in a conflict that ends with Atlantis vanishing beneath the waves. One possibility is that the Minoan civilization(as it's now called), which flourished on the island of Crete until about 1400 B.C., could have inspired the story of Atlantis.
Israel
What was Jesus really like?
The earliest surviving gospels date to the second century, almost 100 years after the life of Jesus. The lack of surviving first-century texts about Jesus leave biblical scholars with a number of questions. When were the gospels written? How many of the stories actually took place? What was Jesus like in real life? Archaeological investigations of Nazareth, Jesus' hometown, reveal more about the environment where he grew up. More recently, scientists discovered a first-century house that, centuries after Jesus' time, was venerated as being the house that Jesus grew up in, but whether it was actually Jesus' house is unknown.
