City of the Dead has old funeral traditions and in some ways it is a unique place of funeral alternatives as well.  This historical necropolis dates back to the 7th century AD.  Many famous Arab emirs and Mamluk rulers are buried here.  In Middle Ages hundreds of custodians who were looking after noble burial monuments and family mausoleums.

Even after the conquest of Egypt by Ottomans City of the Dead still served as a place where the new governors  - pashas  chose to make this place their final resting place.

However, as the years rolled by,  prestige of  City of the Dead declined. Many impoverished Egyptians from overcrowded Cairo, peasants and farmers from nearby villages moved in settled right among the dead.

This largest and most famous Austrian cemetery is situated in Vienna and spans 2.4 square kilometers.  Zentralfriedhof opened in 1874. It is the second largest European cemetery after Hamburg’s Ohlsdorf Cemetery which spans over 4 square kilometers in Germany.  However, as of today Zentralfriedhof has almost 3,5 million  dead people buried there, which makes it the the first one  in Europe because it is largest by number of interred people.

Zentralfriedhof consists of Catholic, Protestant, Russian Orthodox and Jewish cemeteries. It is a part of European cultural heritage. Among upright headstones, mausoleums, big and small memorial monuments, one can find grave markers of famous architects, aviation pioneers, poets and writers, actors and opera singers.  The video  presents the cemetery with the tribute to famous rock singer Falco from the 80s who was also buried here.

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.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

Theodoric's mausoleum in Ravenna

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.

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.