Mausoleum
A mausoleum (plural: mausolea) is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the mausoleum. A Christian mausoleum sometimes includes a chapel.
The word derives from the Mausoleum of Maussollos (near modern-day Bodrum in Turkey), the grave of King Mausollos, the Persian satrap of Caria, whose large tomb was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Historically, mausolea were, and still may be, large and impressive constructions for a deceased leader or other person of importance. However, smaller mausolea soon became popular with the gentry and nobility in many countries, particularly in Europe and her colonies during the early modern and modern periods. These are usually small buildings with walls, a roof and sometimes a door for additional interments or visitor access. Single mausolea may be permanently sealed. A mausoleum encloses a burial chamber either wholly above ground or within a burial vault below the superstructure. This contains the body or bodies, probably within sarcophagi or interment niches. Modern mausolea may also act as columbaria (a type of mausoleum for cremated remains) with additional cinerary urn niches. Mausolea may be located in a cemetery, a churchyard or on private land.
In the United States, the term may be used for a burial vault below a larger facility, such as a church. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, California, for example, has 6,000 sepulchral and cinerary urn spaces for interments in the lower level of the building. It is known as the 'crypt mausoleum'.
Notable mausolea
- Grant's Tomb, New York City - a reduced-scale version of Mausollos' original mausoleum.
- Taj Mahal at Agra, India
- Mazar-e-Quaid at Karachi, Pakistan
- Royal Mausoleum and the Duchess of Kent's Mausoleum at Frogmore, England
- Hamilton Mausoleum at Hamilton in Scotland
- Abraham Lincoln's tomb in Springfield, Illinois
- Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow, Russia.
- The Mastaba
- The pyramids of ancient Egypt, Nubia and China are also types of mausolea.
- For cemeteries containing multiple notable mausolea, see also List of famous cemeteries.
This is a list of mausolea around the world.
Azerbaijan
- Pir-Hussein Mausoleum
- Nizami Mausoleum, Ganja
- Nizami Mausoleum.jpg
Nizami Mausoleum in Ganja, Azerbaijan
- Nizami Ganjavi statue fragment.jpg
A fragment of the statues near the Nizami Mausoleum
- Nizami Ganjavi statue fragment 2.jpg
A series of statues near the Nizami Mausoleum
- Nizami Ganjavi statue fragment 3.jpg
Statue series near the Nizami Mausoleum
Bulgaria
- Battenberg Mausoleum, Sofia (1897)
- Georgi Dimitrov Mausoleum, Sofia (1949; demolished in 1999)
- St George the Conqueror Chapel Mausoleum, Pleven (1907)
- Mausoleum of the Liberators, Razgrad
China
- Ancient Tombs at Longtou Mountain
- Mausoleum of Princess Zhenxiao
- Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, Xi'an
- Mausoleum of Genghis Khan, Inner Mongolia
- Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, Beijing, Tiananmen Square
- Thirteen Imperial Mausoleums of Ming Dynasty Emperors, Beijing
- Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, Nanjing
- Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Nanjing
- Zhao Mausoleum, Jiuzong mountain, Shaanxi province
Cuba
- Mausoleum of Ernesto "Che" Guevara
Cyprus
- Hala Sultan Tekke
France
- Père Lachaise Cemetery contains many notable examples from the classic and Ancient Egyptian-inspired memorials to Napoleon's marshals through to the modernist such as Oscar Wilde's
Finland
- The Juselius Mausoleum, in the city of Pori.
India
- The Taj Mahal, Situated in Agra. Taj Mahal was constructed by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in the memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj is considered as the finest example of Mughal Architecture.
- Mausoleum of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, situated next to Tughluqabad, the third city of Delhi and built by Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq himself
- Tomb of Akbar
- Tomb of Humayun
Indonesia
- Imogiri, in Java where Sultan Agung's Mausoleum has extended into a complex of descendants graves.
Iran
Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization lists several hundred mausoleums in Iran. (See Ferdowsi and Ziyarat articles for some examples). Many such as Imam Reza Mausoleum in Mashhad are religious and from bygone eras. Some, such as the mausoleum of Cyrus the great carry national significance, and others, such as the Imam Khomeini mausoleum in Tehran are contemporary and carry more political weight.
- AbdolSamad Natanz.jpg
Tomb of Abdol-samad, built in 1304C.E. in Natanz.
- Abu lulu tomb.jpg
Mausoleum of Abu-Lu'lu'ah, the assassin of Islam's second caliph, Omar ibn al-Khattab, Kashan.
Israel
- Bnei Hazir tomb
- Cave of the Patriarchs
- David's Tomb
- Joseph's Tomb
- Rachel's Tomb
- Tomb of Samuel
- Yad Avshalom
- Tomb of Zechariah
Italy
- Mausoleum of Augustus
- Mausoleum of Theodoric
- Castel Sant'Angelo, Hadrian mausoleum
Mongolia
- Sühbaatar's mausoleum, Ulan Bator, Mongolia
North Korea
- Kumsusan Memorial Palace, Pyongyang, North Korea
Norway
- The Mausoleum located under the ground floor of Akershus Festning in Oslo contains the bodies of Olav V and Haakon VII of Norway. Queen Maud of Norway and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway
Pakistan
- National Mausoleum of Pakistan (Mausoleum of the founder of Pakistan- Muhammad Ali Jinnah), Karachi City
- Mausoleum of Muhammad Iqbal, Lahore
- Abdullah Shah Ghazi Mazar (mausoleum of Karachi's sufi saint), Karachi
- Mausoleum of the Sufi saint Ali Hajweri (also known as Data Sahib Ganjbaksh), Lahore
- Mausoleum of Bibi Pak Daman, Lahore
- Mausoleum of the Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Lahore
- Mausoleum of Emperor Jehangir (Ruler of Mughal Empire), Lahore
- Mausoleum of Asif Khan (Father of Shah Jehan's beloved Queen Arjumand Bano Begum), Lahore
- Mausoleum of Shah Rukn-e-Alam, (The grandson of Sahikh Bahauddin Zakaria), Multan
- Tomb of Aurangzeb
Poland
- Mausoleum of the Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order, Ordensburg Marienburg in Malbork, Poland
Romania
- Marasesti Mausoleum to the Unknown Soldier
Russia
Serbia
- Kuća cveća (House of the Flowers) Where comrade Marshal Tito was laid to rest in Belgrade.
Spain
- Valle de los Caídos, in San Lorenzo del Escorial.
Taiwan
- The Tzuhu Presidential Burial Place, burial place of President Chiang Kai-shek, in Tzuhu
Turkey
- Ruins of the mausoleum of Maussollos, one of the seven wonders of the world.
Ukraine
- Nikolay Pirogov's mausoleum (Vinnitsa)
- Grigory Kotovsky's mausoleum (destroyed in 1941 by Romanian troops).
United Kingdom
- Frogmore Mausoleum, burial place of Victoria and Albert
- Highgate Cemetery, London, has an impressive collection of Victorian mausoleums
- Hamilton Mausoleum, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire. One of the largest mausolea in the world, the building was started by David Hamilton in 1842 and completed by David Bryce and Alexander Richie in 1858.External link
- Castle Howard Mausoleum, in Yorkshire, by the noted architect John Vanbrugh, and ancestral resting place of the Howard family. Inaccessible to the public save by prior appointment.
- Kensal Green Cemetery, London, the oldest English cemetery of its type still in operation, has many elaborate Victorian mausoleums, including that of Anthony Trollope.
- Museum of Garden History, holds Captain Bligh’s monument moulded from Coade stone.
- West Norwood Cemetery, London includes listed buildings with unusual materials that include wood, pottery (Doulton and Tate) and cast iron (Berens), and many classical mausoleums in its Greek Orthodox area.
United States
See also List of pyramid mausoleums in North America.
- Grant's Tomb
- Stanford Mausoleum
- Miles Mausoleum
- Queen of Heaven Mausoleum
Uzbekistan
- Samanid mausoleum Bukhara
- Bibi-Khanym Mousoleum, Samarkand
- Gur-e Amir, Samarkand
- The Mausoleum of Sheikh Hovendi at-Tahur (Sheihantaur), Tashkent
- Mausoleum of Sheikh Zaynudin, Tashkent
- Qaldirghochbiy Mausoleum, Tashkent
- The Musoleum of Unus-Khan, Tashkent
- Saif ed-Din Bokharzi Mausoleum, Bukhara
- Bayan-Quli Khan Mausoleum, Bukhara
Vietnam
- Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, Hanoi
External links
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