Mausoleum of Augustus. Drawing by Etienne Du Pérac from 1575
Among unique memorials, famous monuments and other numerous landmarks of Rome, there is a place that we know under the name Mausoleum of Augustus. This large tomb complex was one of the first projects started by Roman Emeror Augustus after his victory over combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BC. Mausoleum construction began soon after the Battle of Actium and was completed in 28 BC. This large tomb complex was 295 feet in diameter by 137 feet in height. Mausoleum had circular shape with concentric rings and a conical roof upon which Romans set up a huge status of Augustus.
Even by standards of past and present mausoleum pricing was enormous. Roman viewed this mausoleum as a place of respect and prestige. No wonder, that, eventually, the final resting place of Augustus and imperial family of the time became a burial site of members of Julio-Claudian dynasty. Golden urns with ashes of Roman emperors, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius were enshrined in the burial chamber deep inside the mausoleum. Emperor Nerva who did not even belong to that family was the last prominent ruler whose remains were brought there.
Time and people turned the landmark and its mausoleum into a place of impressive ruins. During the sack of Rome in 410 AD, barbaric Goths stole the golden urns and scattered the ashes. They did not destroy, though, the structure of the mausoleum itself. However, in Middle Ages a powerful Roman noble family Colonna turned the place into a castle. The family lost its power and was banished from the city in 12 century. Former mausoleum of Augustus, then castle was dismantled and became a ruin.
Today the landmark is closed to tourists and Italian authorities make serious attempts at restoration of the Mausoleum of Augustus. They face certain difficulties like the mausoleum cost of restoration and lack of architectural plan of the original memorial park.
They were so different characters… And most defnitely stars of black and white movies. Each of them rose to stardom in Hollywood and all over the world. And all ended their days in the same place: in on the main level of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Great Mausoleum in Glendale, California. Just steps away from each other entombed in their private mausoleums. So rest in peace Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Irving Thalberg, Norma Shearer and Marie Dressler.
Many interment locations in the Forest Lawn Memorial are kept from any intrusion. Many important people and celebrities found their last haven here. Among them are also Humphrey Bogart, Lon Chaney and Mary Pickford. Their burial places are secluded in private gated gardens with no public access.
There is a beautiful family mausoleum complex surrounded by statues and top monuments in Hangzhou, China. This beautiful memorial park has tombs of a father and a son who lived in the 12the century. The entombment is dedicated to the famous Chinese poet and general Yue Fei who serves as a model of loyalty and patriotism in Chinese culture.
Famous sculptors, craftsment and architects worked on this priceless mausoleum. However, it is not an actual burial site and the final resting place of a famous general and his son Yue Yun. It is a place where Chinese people come to pay their respect to their hero.
In fact, throughout the centuries a lot of legends and myths were added to Yue Fei. Some of the describe him as a man of supernatural strength who was blessed by immortals. But we do know that Yue Fei was from a humble background and concisously patterned his life after famous Chinese heroes of the past.
General Yue Fei was an avid reader of military classics a scholar and a true gentleman. He won many military campaigns for the Chinese Song Kingdom fighting against invaders for many years. New emperor Gaozong paid him back for all his bravery by treacherously murdering Yue Fei and his son on false charges.
Later general’s honor was restored and people gave him the name Loyal Hero. A famous quote from his poetry known to every Chinese person says “Return my rivers and mountains”.
The private mausoleum of Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses The Great is located in the Valley of the Kings. This final resting place of a God-King bears the cryptic for a burial site name - Tomb KV7.
There is not really much left of the burial chamber - flash floods damaged it badly destroying much of the decoration beyond repair. None of the famous monuments erected by mausoleum architects survived either.
However, Ramesses II still lucked out because his mummy is still safe and sound. It is exhibited in the Cairo’s Egyptian Museum. How did it happen?
It turns out that Tomb KV7 did not have pharaoh’s body for thousands of years. In fact, the mummy was found by archeologists in another location quite by chance.
Several centuries passed after Ramesses died. The looting of the ancient tombs was on the rise. Egyptian priests decided to take drastic measures in order to preserve mummies of the great pharaohs. They developed a big plan that can easily be used as a plot of a great detective story.
Priests removed pharaoh from the tomb, rewrapped it all over again and transferred it to the tomb of the queen Amhose Inhapy from the 17th dynasty of ancient Egypt. But, obviously, it was not good enough, as within 72 hours priests removed Ramessess from that burial site and placed it in the tomb of High Priest of Amun at Thebes, named Pinedjem II who died in 10th century B.C.
We learned about these multiple reburials because priests recorded them in hieroglyphics on the linen covering the mummy of Ramesses. Yet, this is not the end of the story. Driven by unknown to us events, priests gathered the whole pile of other mummies and left it in the same tomb. When it was discovered in 1881 archeologists discovered other famous pharaohs of 18th and 19th dynasties, including the mummy of Ramesses’ own father.
The discovery of this unintentional family mausoleum led to the largest studies of famous pharaohs. Thanks to this massive entombment we know how the most powerful pharaohs looked like and even establish the cause of death.
The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun opened the modern era of Egyptology in 1922. Boy-king Tut’s private mausoleum and the burial site were practically intact, although grave robbers that did not leave a stone unturned in all other ancient cemeteries, crypts and entombments of Egyptian nobility. Final resting place of Tutahkhamun, son of revolutionary pharaoh Akhenaten, was completely overlooked in the gigantic graveyard - Valley of the Kings.
So, why Tut’s mausoleum tomb was not robbed? Archeologists claim that there were two attempts of robbery but, obviously, they occured within months of the initial burial of Tutankhamun. There is evidence that stolen items were restored in the burial chumber, meaning that the attempts obviously failed .
However, it seems that shortly after his death ninetten year old pharaoh’s name was completely forgotten and vanished from public consciousness in Egypt. The stones from other tombs safely hid his resting place, and the whereabouts of his burial site was lost for thousands of years. In fact, Tut’s tomb entrance was always close by proximity to the temporary huts of the workers in the Valley of the kings. But they did not even suspect that such a treasure was within their grasp.
Tutankhamon still rests in his climate controlled mausoleum in the Valley of the Kings. Forgotten in the past, Tut’s name, his artifacts and the tomb is the best known to the world public. It is the most exhibited too. His name even entered the popular culture if you remember Steve Martin’s song and the villain character of King Tut in the 60s Batman TV series.
In the late 19th century just outside the Italian city of Ravenna workers excavated stone building that was partially submerged in water. It turned out to be the burial mausoleum of Theodoric the Great, king of Ostrogoths. In the center of this personal mausoleum built in 520 there was a porphyry tub, where once the warriors put the body of the late king. However, later, when the city was under Byzantine ruling, the remains were thrown out and the former mausoleum tomb became a Christian chapel.
Theodoric the Great was so popular among Germanic tribes that he became a legend in English, German and Norse mythology. He was not only the king of Ostrogoths, but also the regent of Visigoths and the ruler of Italy. Epic poems of Middle Ages tell stories about the way he dealt with Odoacer - Germanic general who deposed the last emperor of Western Roman empire Romulus Augustulus in 476.
After Odoacer put an end to Western Roman empire, he proclaimed himself a King of Italy. He was an illiterate man and Arian Christian. Odoacer defeated Vandals in Sicily and added ancient Dalmatia to his kingdom. His actions angered Zeno, the Eastern Emperor, who persuaded his Ostrogothic vassals that Odoacer was their enemy. He sent Goths headed by Theodoric get rid of Odoacer once and for all.
Ostrogoths crossed the Alps and poured into Italy. Three times Theodoric defeated armies of Odoacer and at last besieged him in his capital of Ravenna. However, Ostrogoths tried in vain to capture the city for almost three years and in February 2, 493 Theodoric and Odoacer signed a treaty that ensured a shared rule over Italy. Happy Odoacer organized a lavish banquet to celebrate the treaty. During this celebration, Theodoric, after making a first toast murdered Odoacer in cold blood. He strangled the king of Italy with his bare hands.
Unlike his predecessor, Theodoric restored Roman law and judicial system for Roman citizens while Goths were obeying their custom laws and customs. His kingdom kept on expanding. However he was Arian Christian and that led to the deterioration of his ties with Eastern Roman empire. And after his death, Theodoric’s achievements began to unravel pretty fast.
His mausoleum is one of the greatest and priceless monuments in Ravenna. It has its own Gothic style and decoration which UNESCO considers it among the world heritage sites. This memorial mausoleum is also the only surviving burial tomb of a barbarian king of that period.
Among the prominent modern mausoleums around the world, there is a famous one in the city of Karachi, Pakistan. It is a usual place of visit of the dignitaries and officials from foreign countries. This Pakistani national masoleum complex is called in Urdu language Mazar-e-Quaid. Inside it, there is a tomb of the founder of Pakistan - Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
The mausoleum complex including the monuments was completed in the 1960s. However, its arcitechtual design has an interesting history. It was borrowed from the past. In fact, tthis white marble mausoleum construction is the replica of the funeral complex built in Central Asia between 892 and 943. This famous original is called Samanid mausoleum. It is located in modern city of Bukhara, Uzbekistan on the burial site of even more ancient cemetery.
Mazar-e-Quaid is elevated on 54 metres platform and has an inner cool sanctum. The burial chamber contains an impressive four-tiered crystal chandelier presented to Pakistan from the Republic of China. The memorial park that surrounds it can also be considered a cemetery complex as it serves as the place of entombment for most prominent people of Pakistan, including the first prime minister of this country.
At nights, the mausoleum is glowing and can be seen for miles, as strong-beamed lights in the memorial park are reflected from its white surface. On special occasions, grand military and official Pakistani ceremonies are taking place here as well.
One of the most interesting modern mausoleums has been located in Central Java province which is a part of the Republic of Indonesia. It is a grand mausoleum complex for the Suharto family named Astana Giribangun which is translated from Javanese into English as a “Palace of Arisen Mountain”.
Suharto was a second president of Indonesia who ruled his country with an iron hand from 1967 to 1998 and passed away in January 2008. His mausoleum construction and subsequent entombment partially occupies a huge cemetery and memorial park famous for the burial sites of the royal Java kings and their families.
The history of the mausoleum is the following. President Suharto chose this place for construction before his death because this exact location is considered a powerful magical place by many Indonesian spiritualists and soothsayers. The granite mausoleum building was created in traditional Javanese architectural style to serve as last place for the remains of Suharto’s late wife and her mother in 1996.
Moving the crypts of his relatives to the the mosoleum instead of the regular cemetery lots led to the huge controversy in the Indonesian and, especially, Javanese society. Some thought that Suharto’s wife should not have been buried at this sacred place as she was not of true royal blood but a simple commoner.
Eventually, this incident grew as a snowball and ended in court. The decision of the court was even more astounding. It allowed president Suharto to have the mosoleum complex and family monuments at the cemetery but they should not be higher than existing royal tombs.
This the incident was resolved and in January 2008 president died and joined his relatives in the mausoleum, where he was buried with full state military honors.
One of the most beautiful places to see in Ordos City located in Chinese Inner Mongolia province, is a great private mausoleum with colorful towers and monuments. This architectual construction is called Genghis Khan Mausoleum. However, this is not the last resting place of the great conqueror. And he does not end his days in Ordos city either. The mausoleum serves more as a memorial building dedicated to Mongol foiunder who created the largest contiguous empire in the history of mankind. Thus, Mongols consider Genghis Khan their national hero, although other nations may have completely opposite opinion about him.
The real burial place of the ruthless ruler is the unmarked grave located somewhere in the steppes of Mongolia. Genghis Khan. Up to our present days its location is unknown. Truly speaking, we don’t even know why Genghis Khan died at all. Some chronicles state that he died in the land of Egypt, others mention that he passed away from pneumonia after defeating rebellious Tangut tribes in China. There is even a romantic version about the captured Tangut princess who killed Genghis Khan as a revenge for his invasion.
The only real fact that we know is the time of death. Genghis Khan died in 1227 and before his death asked to be buried without markings to his grave, according to the funeral rituals of his native tribe. His body was returned to Mongolia to the vicinity of Onon River. The rest of the details become rather vague as the legend takes place of the real story. According to it, funeral escort killed anyone and anything across their path to his last resting place. This merciless act was done to conceal the place of the grave where Genghis Khan was finally buried.
Other legends go even further and tell us the stories of additional efforts to hide Genghis Khan’s final burial place. One of them tells us that even the river was diverted over his grave to conceal the grave completely. Another one states that Mongol funeral escort organized a stampede of horses over Genghis Khan’s grave and then even planted the trees at that place.
Many archaeological tried in vain to find the Genghis Khan’s burial place but in vain. Many years later the luxurious mausoleum was built to honor the conqueror and create a memorial but not the burial site.
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.
Mausoleum is a building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person. Its plural form is mausolea, although in America we commonly use for plural - mausoleums. What is the origin of the word? It was derived from the name of King Mausollos, ruler of ancient kingdom of Caria. His tomb - Mausoleum - was such an architectural marvel that it was considered to be the greatest aesthetic triumph. Ancients thought of it as the highest achievement and called it one of the Seven Wonders of the Word.
