Ancient School Linked to Aristotle and Alexander the Great Unearthed in Northern Greece

Greek archaeologists have uncovered what they believe is the school in Mieza where Aristotle educated Alexander the Great more than 2,300 years ago, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture said in a translated statement.

The fourth-century B.C. complex includes two banquet halls, a sporting arena, a stadium, a covered colonnade and a lecture hall fitted with stone desks. Mosaic floors and columns gave the site an unusually grand appearance. Raised pedestals in the banquet halls would once have supported nearly 12 couches.

The ministry said the complex’s decoration and architecture closely resemble those of the Macedonian royal palace at Aigai, now known as modern Vergina in northern Greece, where Philip II and his son Alexander lived.

Excavations have also produced coins, pottery and four styluses used by ancient students for writing. Kottaridi said these finds, along with the site’s location and architecture, support the proposed identification.

A school named in ancient sources

Aristotle’s student Plutarch, who lived around A.D. 50 to 120, wrote in his biography “Life of Alexander” that Alexander was educated at a school in Mieza under Aristotle. Based on that account, Angeliki Kottaridi, an archaeologist and director emerita of antiquities with the ministry who is leading the excavations, believes the complex is the historic school.

Plutarch wrote that Philip II ordered the school built “for the education of his son Alexander and the children of the noble Macedonians,” Kottaridi told Live Science in an email. In the ancient Greek world, such institutions—known as gymnasia—combined intellectual instruction with physical training.

Kottaridi said the discovery developed indirectly. A few years ago, she identified ancient remains beside Mieza’s theater, prompting her team to begin excavating the complex in 2024. Some earlier work had been conducted more than 20 years ago, when a nearby monument dedicated to the nymphs was found.

Support from outside scholars

Archaeologists and historians not involved in the excavation generally support the proposed identification.

Jeanne Reames, director of the Ancient Mediterranean Studies program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said the evidence points to a school commissioned by Philip II so Aristotle could teach Alexander and other young Macedonian elites. She hopes the findings will eventually be published in detail and provide a clearer picture of elite education in fourth-century B.C. Macedonia.

Graham Wrightson, a history professor at South Dakota State University, said excavating rooms associated with Alexander’s formative education offers a rare opportunity to imagine the setting in which his teacher helped shape the future king. The four surviving styluses are especially evocative, although none can be linked directly to Alexander.

Elizabeth Baynham, a senior lecturer at the University of Newcastle in Australia, said the complex’s opulence was unsurprising given Philip II’s considerable wealth.

Baynham also suggested that the school’s location may have offered protection. Mieza lay about 27 miles (43 kilometers) from Macedonia’s ancient capital at Pella—far enough away that Alexander might have had time to escape if his father were assassinated.

Baynham noted that Aristotle was only in his early 40s and was among the most accomplished thinkers of the ancient world. With a reportedly highly intelligent student, he likely provided Alexander with an exceptionally rigorous education.

Historian Miltiades Hatzopoulos urged caution, however, saying that more archaeological evidence needs to be published. While the school identification is likely, the excavation leader has shared findings in interviews but has not yet released a scholarly paper setting out the relevant evidence.

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