BestMausoleum.com - Mausoleums, Monuments, Memorials of the World

Unique mausoleums built by Egyptian pharaoh Sneferu does not attract many tourists. It is pity, because Sneferu’s pyramids pre-date the latter ones constructed in Giza.  They represent a tribute to architectural searches and titanic efforts of the ancient civilizations.

Centuries after pharaoh Sneferu had been gone, his ruling was viewed as the gold age of Egypt.  He is depicted as a wise and generous ruler of the Fourth Dynasty who build up many temples and buildings. Sneferu is also a father of the ancient Egyptian fleet: fourty of his boats were importing cedar from Lebanon. Other ships would travel to further places like Livia, Nubia and Sinai.

During his life Sneferu constructed not just one but three pyramids as mausoleums. He transformed old step pyramid of his predecessor pharaoh Hunu to a true pyramid. He also built a famous personal mausoleum known as a Bent Pyramid - a unique example of early pyramid development.  Bent Pyramid has a mysterious small satelite pyramid of unknown purpose and a a small temple on eastern side of it.

Sneferu was not happy with Bent Pyramid and considered it imperfect. That is why he started a third mausoleum which is known to us as Red Pyramid. It is the 4th largest pyramid after the ones in Giza. While Sneferu’s pyramids are smaller, the total volume of stone used in Sneferu’s monuments is the larges of all pharaohs.

At the time of its completion, Red Pyramid was the tallest man made structure in the world! Many centuries later granite mausoleum’s surface became exposed to the surface. Its light crimson hue gave name to Sneferu’s final resting place.

Currently, Sneferu’s mausoleums are considered transitonal from step pyramids to the smooth ones that we are all familiar with.  It is evident, though, that Sneferu’s successful ruling dramatically expanded search for architectural solutions in construction of personal and family mausoleums.

Everybody in the world heard about Arlington National Cemetery - the largest military cemetery in the United States.  It was established during the Civil War and since that time over 290,000 people were buried there.  It may come as news, but there are also two family mausoleums in Arlington National Cemetery.

These are the only two mausoleums located in the borders of the cemetery. The first family mausoleum is the final burial place for many descendants and members of the Miles Family. And the second one belongs to the Sullivan Family.

Lieutenant General Nelson Appleton Miles served for 42 years in the United States Army.  He fought in the Civil War, Indian Wars and Spanish-American war.  He was already old when the World War 1 began but he still volunteered to serve in the army. President Wilson turned Miles down due to his age.  General Miles died in 1925 and was buried  in Arlington National Cemetery at the first mausoleum confined within this area.

Brigadier General Thomas Crook Sullivan whose final resting place is in the second mausoleum in the confines of Arlington National Cemetery land a long lasting military career too.  He was a guard for president Abraham Lincoln during his inauguration.  Then Sullivan served during the Civil War participating in many decisive battles. General Sullivan died in 1908 and after the cremation his remains were buried in the mausoleum of the Arlington National Cemetery.

It seems that both personal mausoleums are destined to be the only ones on this famous cemetery.  Since 1925,  none of other deceased American war heroes and veterans ever received such a prestigious burial place.

Only for several days every year public can visit one the most remarkable places in Great Britain - Hamilton Palace Mausoleum. It is the family mausoleum that is a part of the Hamilton Palace complex which is the largest non-royal residence in the western world. Mausoleum design was developed in the middle of 19th century by David Hamilton and the whole structure was completed in 1858 by architects David Bryce and Alexander Richie. Originally, the 10th Duke Hamilton planned this Roman-style burial place to be a private mausoleum for his family members on his land in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Inside the mausoleum, the 10th Duke Hamilton was buried in a sarcophagus, built in the ancient Egyptian style.  The remains of almost two dozen of his ancestors were buried in the crypt below. Later, during the big flooding from river Clyde, the human remains of this grand and unique mausoleum were moved out of this entombment and re-buried in the local cemetery.

The grand marble and granite mausoleum is not only famous of its size, although the latter is remarkable too as it occupies a site of 650 feet and reaches the height of 123 feet. Mausoleum builders “equipped” it with the longest-lasting echo of any building in the world. The visitors of the impressive mausoleum can also witness the acoustic effect that is nicknamed “whispering walls”.  If two people would stand on the opposite sides at both ends of the interior walls facing each other, they  can easily conduct a whispered conversation. Another interesting detail of the family mausoleum was a giant glass oculus on the dome. In 1970 it was emoved and replaced by a perspex version with the help of a helicopter

You won’t find a new yorker who does not know Grant’s Tomb. It is a family mausoleum that contains the remains of President Grant and his wife Julia. The mausoleum complex is located in Manhattan overlooking Hudson River.

As of today, Grant’s tomb is the largest mausoleum in North America.  The whole complex was completed 12 years after Ulysses S. Grant’s death in the end of 19th century by the architect John Duncan.  Not only the size of the tomb makes it special - this unique mausoleum was paid by huge public subscription.

The mausoleum builder John Duncan was inspired by the tomb of Mausolos at Halicarnassus and he tried to reflect the modern concept of it by building this beautiful granite and marble mausoleum. He also surrounded the structure by memorial statues of Civil War generals.  Some say, that there are similarities between this resting place and Napoleon tomb in Paris.

Some hundred years passed by and Grant’s tomb became totally neglected and somewhat forgotten. In the end of the 20th century mausoleum was not only in a state of complete disrepair, it was also vandalized by spray-painted graffiti. It was not even considered important enough by city authorities in order to go through emergency repairs.  The descendants of general Grant were even going to move his and his wife remains to a private mausoleum in Illinois.

Renewed public interest to the events of the Civil War changed this nasty situation. Restoration works were completed in 1997 and they cost almost two million dollars.  The area around the tomb is monitored and the security increased.  Military ceremonies are conducted in the  mausoleum complex. Currently there are plans to create a visitor center and to expand the restoration works.

Even before ancient Egyptians invented pyramids as the private mausoleums for their late pharaohs, our world knew similar constructions albeit for slightly different purposes. In the 4th millennium BC in Mesopotamian valley people were building first known to us custom mausoleums known as ziggurats.

At first ziggurats were built as the simple raised platforms and sometime after turned into a form of a terraced pyramid with a flat top.  The construction material was not the granite or stones but sun-baked bricks. Unlike Egyptians pyramids, they were not burial places and did not have an internal chambers.  These custom mausoleums were the dwelling places for gods.

Ancient Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians believed that through ziggurats gods could be close to mankind, therefore these temples represented a connection between heaven and earth.   Only the chosen ones could communicate with gods on the top of these unique mausoleums.  They were high priests of anicent Sumeria.

In the ancient times one could find a mausoleum of this type all around Mesopotamia. But now archeologists discovered only 32 of them. Priests would access the top of the ziggurat via three special staircases. There they would conduct special rituals and sacrifice animals to their gods in the special shrines.

We find mentions of these ancient believes on the pages of the Old Testament in the story about the Babylon Tower.  Famous kings Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar were actively engaged in the construction of their own ziggurats that were marvels of the human genius in the ancient times.

In the modern times famous architects got inspired by the ziggurats and built great buildings in the same style of a step pyramid. Among these modern ziggurats are National Geographic Society in Washington, DC and Gold Vault in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Those who think that mausoleums and tombs built as pyramids are located only in ancient Egypt and Nubia would be pleasantly surprised when they visit Rome.  In 1660, quite by accident a mysterious pyramid was discovered there.  It turned out to be a private mausoleum constructed as a small pyramid in 12 BC for an influential Roman magistrate Gaius Cestius.  This mausoleum price was not cheap. Contemporaries witnessed an interior burial chamber decorated with frescoes. The tomb inside mausoleum was empty missing even human remains, which meant that it was robbed completely somewhere in the antiquity.

Naturally, as the years passed by, these frescoes were gone,  and the pyramid survived only because it was built into Rome’s fortifications.  This mausoleum is around 6 meters long and 5 meters high. It is one of the best preserved ancient building in Rome as of today.  This type of tomb is different from its Egyptian neighbor by having no underground tunnels. It does not have exterior entrance either, so the tourists can not visit the interior of the mausoleum.

At the times when it was built the pyramid of Cestius probably looked very prominent. It stood in the countryside at the fork between two important roads, one of which led to the sea port of Ostia and another to the river of Tiber.  The exterior of the tomb was made of bricks mixed with the slabs of white marble.

The city of imperial Rome was expanding so fast that in a couple of centuries the mausoleum was completely surrounded by buildings.  The city needed more space, all bronze statues standing next to  Cestius’s tomb vanished as well as other statues, monuments, memorials and old neighboring tombs.

We know now that pyramid of Cestius was not the only one in Rome. There was a bigger one close to Vatican which was destroyed in the 16the century.  Obviously at the time of its constructions the imitation of Egyptian art, architecture and even rituals were in fashion.

In the 3d century the tomb was built into the city walls in order to save the costs and was used as some sort of triangular bastion.  Most achievements of the antiquity and ancient world were forgotten during the Middle Ages. That is why medieval Romans did not know the origin of the mausoleum.  When they realized that the bastion was in fact the partially marble mausoleum, they thought that it was the tomb of one of the founders of Rome - Remus.

Somehow when people mention pyramids that served as tombs or mausoleums for royalty, we tend to think of Ancient Egypt and its monumental structures. However, this is not the case: it seems that ancient pyramids were built in different parts of the world and served as memorials and monuments to people.

For example, in ancient Nubia - ancient land that was located in the present day Sudan, there were 220 pyramids built for kings and queens.  This number tremendously exceeds 120 pyramids constructed in the ancient Egypt for the period of three thousand years!

Nubia was always heavily influenced by the traditions of ancient Egypt. Its kingdoms located in the Nile valley even competed strongly with Egypt and at some point conquered it. The Nubian kings unified Egypt and became pharaohs of the 25th Dynasty and ruled until the powerful Assyrian kingdom conquered Egypt in 656 BC.

Nubian pyramids built with stone blocks range from 6 to 30 meters high.  Their width is relatively small and narrow comparing to their northern neighbors that were up to five times larger.

All Nubian pyramids were all plundered long time ago but archeologists  have strong proof that royalty in mausoleums were mummified and wore lots of jewelry.  14 pyramids were built for Nubian warrior queens who successfully ruled their kingdom and added new territories to their land.  And the largest pyramid is the final resting place for one of the last Nubian pharaohs of Egypt named Taharqa.

Even before the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus,  that kind of structures existed even though they could not compete with the former one in their beauty, excess of lavishness.  Probably, mastaba tombs can be considered  the earliest mausoleums that ever existed on Earth.

Mastaba was a type of tomb where early Egyptian pharaohs and high nobility were buried. It is rectangular in shape and looks from the distance as a bench (this is how this word, actually translated from Arabic).  Under this structure priests would lay down a dead body in a deep sealed chamber.  In order to preserve the remains, ancient Egyptians invented artificial mummification.

Ancient Egyptians did not have cemeteries or graveyards. So, mastaba also served as a type of funeral memorial. It had a fake door where the family of the deceased and the priests would conduct regular funeral rituals, leave gifts, including food.

There are still a lot of early mastaba tombs in the Abydos It is interesting to note that famous Egyptian pyramids are actually descendants of mastaba. In fact, one of the earliest pyramids represents several mastabas put one on top of the other. It is known by the name Step Pyramid.

Luckily we know the name of the famous architect who converted mastaba into the first pyramid. His name was Imhotep and he lived in the 27th century BC and was a chancellor and high priest of pharaoh Djoser. And this is not all. He is also credited with invention of ancient Egyptian medicine.

Obviously, he was such a genius, that ancient Egyptians believed he became a god after his death. Popular adventure movie Mummy and its sequel are loosely based on the life of Imhotep. Archeologists still search for the location of Imhotep’s tomb but as of now its location is still unknown.

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was a tomb that kept the remains of the ruler of small kingdom Caria in Asia Minor Mausolus and his wife and sister Artemisia.  The structure finished after the death of a couple in the 4th century B.C. was of such a beauty that in the antique world  it became known as one of the seven wonders of the world.  And as a confirmation of this all private tombs currently are called mausoleums deriving their name from this aesthetic triumph of the ancient world.

Young Mausolus had an ambition to build a new beautiful capital and for that purpose chose the city of Halicarnassus, which is presently city of Bodrum in Turkey.  He drained their treasury fulfilling ths dream of a young king.  But it was his wife Artemisia that came up with the idea to build the magnificent tomb in the center of Halicarnassus to show the world how prosperous they were.

Unfortunately, Mausolus died young and his widow decided to proceed with the creation of his tomb. She hired the best and talented artists  and hundreds of craftsmen of ancient Greece for the construction.  We know that two greatest Greek architects Satyrus and Pythius worked on the design of the Mausoleum.  And sculptural reliefs of the tomb were created by genius of Leochares, Bryaxis, Scopas and Timotheus - most famous Greek sculptors of those times.  One of the sculptors - Scopas supervised before the reconstruction of another of seven wonders of the world - Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.

Artemisia passed away only two years after the death of her beloved Mausolus. And then an amazing thing happened. The construction of the Mausoleum had not stopped.  Artists and craftsmen decided to work on the tomb and finish it for free because Mausoleum became more than a memorial to the rulers. They felt, that the tomb had to be completed as the memorial of  sculptors art for posterity and new generations.