A new version of how the face of the legendary Macedonian king Alexander the Great could look like in real life is presented by Royalty Now studio on YouTube.
Researchers have often used modern technology and historical records to try to answer the question of what Alexander’s real face looked like, also based on the many surviving images of the great Greek commander and ruler, who was born in 356 BC and died in 323 BC. e.
In his short but adventurous life, Alexander built a vast empire stretching from Greece to northwestern India, and cemented in the collective memory the title of “great”.
A hunting scene fresco in the tomb of Philip II, Alexander’s father, at the Aigai archaeological complex, is the only known surviving depiction of Alexander made during his lifetime, in 330 BC.
In addition, contemporary coins and the famous mosaic of Alexander – a 1st-century BC work discovered in Pompeii – show him with a “straight nose, slightly protruding jaw, full lips and deep-set eyes under a pronounced forehead”, as described by Krzysztof Navotka in in his 2010 study “Alexander the Great” by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Although most statues of Alexander attribute the same facial features to the young king of Macedon, historians could not be sure what his hair color actually was, as historians’ reports are inconsistent. The ancient historian Aelirian (c. 175-235 AD) in his Varia Historia describes Alexander’s hair color as blond “xanthos”, which can also mean yellowish, reddish or brownish.
Taking into account all the other features of his face and the shape of the skull, Royal Now Studios tried to create not only a new reconstruction of the face of Alexander the Great, but to make an interpretation of how he could look in modern clothes.
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