A historian says that the remains of the tomb of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman sultan who died in 1566 during an attack on the Hungarian fortress of Szigetvar, have been found in Hungary, according to The Guardian.
An excavation team found objects and historical evidence suggesting that a discovered tomb is Suleiman's, although Nobert Pap of Hungary's University of Pécs, who led the excavations, said that further excavations will need to be conduced in order to confirm the findings.
"Currently everything suggests that this building could have been Suleiman's tomb," said Pap. "However, in order to be able to assert this with 100 percent certainty, further examinations and the excavations of the other surrounding buildings are necessary."
Suleiman was the Ottoman Empire's longest-ruling sultan until his death at age 71, and under his 46-year rule the Turks expanded their grasp in the Balkans, the Middle East and northern Africa.
Pap and his team have spent the last three years surveying areas around the castle of Szigetvár for any traces of his tomb and used historical records as a guide for their efforts, according to Live Science.
"We know from archival registers what kind of a structure it was," said Günhan Börekçi, a historian who was not involved in the research. "This was Hungary, so it's a little far away from the capital. It's not something really huge, it's a relatively small one, like the ones we see constructed for dignitaries of the era."
Further excavation work on the site will resume in April 2016, according to The Independent, and Pap is confident that their theory will be supported.
"We have data which all points in the same direction," he said. "That is why we say 'in all certainty,' because there is no sign pointing in another direction."
