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.
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.
