For centuries, the world has searched for Cleopatra’s tomb, a mystery so enduring it has become legend. Some say the Egyptian queen vowed that no man would ever find her resting place. Two thousand years later, that prophecy, real or imagined, might finally become reality, thanks to a Latina. And you can watch it unfold in Cleopatra’s Final Secret, which premiered on National Geographic and is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
For nearly two decades, Dr. Kathleen Martínez, a Dominican archaeologist and National Geographic Explorer, has pursued one of the most elusive quests in archaeology – finding the final resting place of Cleopatra VII, Egypt’s last pharaoh.
Martínez was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, where her fascination with ancient history began. She dreamed of studying archaeology, but her father urged her to pursue a career that would guarantee stability. She chose law, specializing in criminal justice, and later realized those investigative skills could serve her deeper passion. When she eventually shifted to archaeology, she tackled it the way she once started legal cases, treating Cleopatra’s story like a mystery to be solved through evidence, logic, and persistence.
“She approached the whole thing like a crime scene,” said Dr. Robert Ballard, the famed ocean explorer who discovered the Titanic and joined Martínez’s latest expedition. Ballard first learned about her work when National Geographic photographer Kenneth Garrett introduced them. “I went online, did my homework, and was blown away,” Ballard recalled. “I found her fascinating. I’ve spent my career as an outsider stepping into someone else’s field, so I saw a kindred spirit.”
Martínez began excavating at Taposiris Magna in 2005, a temple complex about thirty miles west of Alexandria dedicated to the goddess Isis, Cleopatra’s chosen deity. Many scholars believe the queen was buried somewhere in Alexandria’s royal quarter, much of which now lies submerged after an earthquake and tsunami struck the region in A.D. 365. Martínez disagreed. She believed Cleopatra would have chosen a temple connected to Isis, one that symbolized rebirth and divine union.
Since beginning her excavation, Martínez and her Egyptian and Dominican team have made a series of discoveries supporting her theory. In 2022, she announced that they’d found a 4,300-foot tunnel carved through solid limestone, descending about forty feet underground and stretching toward the sea. Inside, there was pottery and ceramics dating to the Ptolemaic period, suggesting activity from Cleopatra’s time.
Martínez’s latest breakthrough came miles offshore. With Ballard’s expertise in marine exploration and technology from the University of New Hampshire, the team used high-resolution sonar to survey the seabed near Taposiris Magna. Working with Egyptian Navy hydrographers, they mapped the underwater terrain in 3D, sweeping the area for signs of man-made structures.
What they found astonished them: the remains of an ancient harbor, complete with amphora fragments, anchors, a basalt pedestal, and a polished stone floor, all unmistakably human-made and dating to Cleopatra’s era. “The divers are down. They’ve discovered a port,” Martínez exclaimed from a raft above the site, her reaction captured in the documentary. For her, it was not just a scientific victory but a moment of validation after years her peers’ skepticism. The discovery suggests Taposiris Magna was far more than a religious center – it may have been a thriving maritime hub during Cleopatra’s reign.
“This makes the temple really important,” Martínez told National Geographic in Cleopatra’s Final Secret. “It had all the conditions to be chosen for Cleopatra to be buried with Mark Antony.”
Ballard brought decades of experience to the partnership but insists Martínez is the driving force. “This is Kathleen’s story,” he said. “I’m a supporting actor. She broke barriers the way Cleopatra did. She’s been underestimated, challenged, and she’s persisted.”
For Martínez, the search is about more than a tomb. It is about reclaiming the story of a woman erased and rewritten by her conquerors. Cleopatra’s intellect and leadership were long overshadowed by Roman propaganda that painted her as a seductress rather than a strategist. “Cleopatra was a philosopher, a doctor in medicine, a chemist, a specialist in beauty,” Martínez said in the documentary. “She was an extraordinary woman who made powerful men afraid.”
That admiration fuels Martínez’s pursuit. Like Cleopatra, she has faced barriers in male-dominated spaces. As a Latina scientist leading a global archaeological mission, she stands as proof that exploration is not bound by geography or gender.
Much of Cleopatra’s life unfolded on the water, from her fateful meeting with Mark Antony on the Cydnus River to their defeat at the naval Battle of Actium. It is fitting, then, that her story might end beneath the sea. If Martínez is right, Taposiris Magna and its newly uncovered port could be the key to locating Cleopatra’s final resting place, a place the Romans never found.
In Cleopatra’s Final Secret, Martínez floats above the dive site as the Mediterranean sun burns overhead. “After two thousand years, nobody has ever been there,” she tells her team. “We are the first ones.” The discovery, announced by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, has drawn worldwide attention and could redefine what we know about Cleopatra’s last days and the reach of her empire.
Now, during Hispanic Heritage Month, Martínez’s work carries added resonance. Her story is one of cultural pride, determination, and representation, a Dominican woman leading one of archaeology’s most ambitious searches, rewriting what discovery looks like and who gets to make it. In an era when women of color are still fighting for recognition in science, Martínez’s presence at the forefront of such a monumental excavation is both symbolic and groundbreaking.
If anyone uncovers the queen’s final secret, it seems fated that it should be the woman who shares her defiance, a Latina explorer who refuses to stop digging.
