Alexander the Great's Mysterious Death: Solved After 2000 Years? A year after the death of his closest friend and companion Alexander the Great suffered 10 days of a high fever before he died on June 10 or 11 in 323 at the age of 32. There are a few competing hypotheses regarding the death of Alexander the Great ranging from poisoning or assassination typhoid or malaria and new hypotheses continue to be suggested. More recent suggestions for the cause of Alexander's death are the West Nile virus or Guillain-Barré syndrome Ancient sources say that Alexander's body didn't begin decomposing until 6 days after he was proclaimed dead and GBS could be the reason why Alexander may have been experiencing paralysis which meant his body would not have needed as much oxygen so it may have looked as if he wasn't breathing. Ancient doctors didn't use the pulse to determine if someone was alive but rather if they were breathing or not #alexanderthegreat #alexander #death #doctor