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.
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.
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.
