FYROM … er … Macedonia … er … somewhere it has no business being. Or at least that’s the impression we’re being given from a couple of sources. First, MINA came out with this tantalizingly brief brief:

MiNa was not able to verify this information with the Macedonian Government nor with archeologists in Skopje, and are removing the text from “City Magazine” until further notice. Although there may be a chance ‘City Magazine’ is right, taking into account their elaborate piece, and there maybe a chance and a good reason for Macedonia to keep this secret, if we can’t verify the information, then it’s not news. To sum up, ‘City Magazine’ claims the Macedonian Government had found the grave of Alexander the Great in the Visje area (near Gevgelija) close to the border with Greece.

Then, the Bulgarian Focus came out with a typically-strangely translated piece (which expresses skepticism, interestingly enough):

Macedonian archaeologist Pasco Kuzman comments to FOCUS News Agency information released by online Macedonian edition and drawn from Serbian blog, which says that the tomb of Alexander the Great has been found at the Greek-Macedonian border with the following words:
“If it is true – it is a big lie. If it is a lie – it is a great truth. Multiplied, it is equal to zero.”
That was the answer of the question weather it is late April’s joke.
***

Macedonian Cyrillic edition published today, a text set out in Belgrade blog City Magazine, which contains a “stunt” for the discovery of the tomb of Alexander of Macedonia, which would have changed the history. Macedonian Edition offers readers the text on the matter stating that perhaps it’s a fictional story of a blogger.
“During reconstruction works on Visie border checkpoint between Macedonia and Greece / officially there is no such border checkpoint – FOCUS notices/, construction workers from” Build ” company uncovered one of the biggest mysteries of antiquity. The discovery has been found in digging of geodesic markers, and then with the permission of building inspectors it led to further construction activities. It was necessary to remove a large stone to dig further in order to make analysis on the ground. After the stone was removed, a granite slab appeared. Thinking that it was a buried wealth from the time of the Ottoman Empire, driver of the excavator began to dig together with his colleagues. Two hours later it became clear that it was a marble building, 30 meters long and four wide, the edition reads further. After descriptions of the finding the Director of the General Inspectorate of the Republic of Macedonia Goce Micevski from the National Museum /there is not such a museum – FOCUS notices/ and experts stated in a joint statement that in the Crypt was found well preserved skeleton with full outfit with gold-bronze armor and shit and mask, which was engraved with the name Alexander.
Journalists were promised to have a press conference in the afternoon, and meanwhile the text quoted the words of the workers involved in the excavations. /The text didn’t mention a date or even a day of a week – FOCUS notices/

FOCUS New Agency recalls:

Pasco Kuzman is Macedonian archaeologist, director of the Institute for the cultural heritage of Macedonia. He took part in restoration works of the historical complex Samuilova fortress in Ohrid.

Of course, there is no possibility that this has to do with the whole FYROM/Macedonia/Greece thing (he said, sarcastically … we need a smiley to denote sarcasm). The sad thing is that there will be piles of folk who buy into this … we’ll wait with bated breath to see if a major news source picks this up. We’re still waiting for pictures of that Bactrian inscription mentioned last week, by the way …

• Pasco Kuzman: Allegation for found tomb of Alexander of Macedonia is incorrect (Focus)

• Gravesite of Alexander the Great found? (Mina)