Look up mausoleum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Taj Mahal, in Agra, India is the world's most famous and most photographed mausoleum.

The entrance to Lenin's Mausoleum.

The entrance to Higashi Otani Mausoleum in Kyoto, Japan.

Habib Bourguiba's mausoleum in Monastir, Tunisia.

Kumsusan Memorial Palace, Kim Il Sung's mausoleum in Pyongyang, North Korea.

A mausoleum^[1] is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the mausoleum. A Christian mausoleum sometimes includes a chapel.

[edit] Overview

The word derives from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (near modern-day Bodrum in Turkey), the grave of King Mausolus, the Persian satrap of Caria, whose large tomb was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Historically, mausolea were, and still may be, large and impressive constructions for a deceased leader or other person of importance. However, smaller mausolea soon became popular with the gentry and nobility in many countries. In the Roman Empire, these were often ranged in necropoleis or along roadsides: the via Appia Antica retains the ruins of many private mausolea for miles outside Rome. However, the practice fell out of use when Christianity became dominant.^[2]

Later, mausolea became particularly popular in Europe and its colonies during the early modern and modern periods. These are usually small buildings with walls, a roof and sometimes a door for additional interments or visitor access. A single mausoleum may be permanently sealed. A mausoleum encloses a burial chamber either wholly above ground or within a burial vault below the superstructure. This contains the body or bodies, probably within sarcophagi or interment niches. Modern mausolea may also act as columbaria (a type of mausoleum for cremated remains) with additional cinerary urn niches. Mausolea may be located in a cemetery, a churchyard or on private land.

In the United States, the term may be used for a burial vault below a larger facility, such as a church. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, California, for example, has 6,000 sepulchral and cinerary urn spaces for interments in the lower level of the building. It is known as the 'crypt mausoleum'.

[edit] Notable mausolea

Main article: List of mausolea.

[edit] Africa

• The Mastaba
• The pyramids of ancient Egypt, Nubia and China are also types of mausolea.
• Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania
• Al Hussein Mosque, Cairo – a Holy Shrine and Mausoleum, where it is believed by some that the head of the Prophet Muhamed's Grandson is buried.
• Qalawun Mausoleum is the Mausoleum of Qalawun, Located in Cairo, Egypt, it was regarded by scholars as the second most beautiful medieval mausoleum ever to be built.

[edit] Asia, eastern

• Taj Mahal at Agra, India
• The Shrine of the Báb and the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh in Haifa and Acre, Israel, respectively.
• Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor biggest underground mausoleum
• The pyramids of ancient China are also types of mausolea.
• Qianling Mausoleum in China, houses the remains of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and the ruling Empress Wu Zetian, along with 17 others in auxiliary tombs.
• Mausoleum of Genghis Khan in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia.
• Tomb of Jahangir at Shahdara, near Lahore, Pakistan.
• Mazar-e-Quaid at Karachi, Pakistan
• Masjid an-Nabawi, Madīnah – mausoleum of Prophet Muhammad
• Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
• Kumsusan Memorial Palace or Kim Il-sung Mausoleum, Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)
• Mausoleum of Mao Zedong
• Quezon Memorial, in Quezon City, Philippines, houses the remains of Philippine President Manuel Quezon and his wife Aurora.
• Astana Giribangun Suharto family complex in traditional Javanese architectural style in Karanganyar, Central Java
• Imogiri complex in Imogiri, Central Java is the cemetery for Mataram royals and the Hamengkubuwana Royals of Yogyakarta and Pakubuwono of Surakarta

[edit] Asia, western

• Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus
• Anitkabir mausoleum of Ataturk the founder of the Republic of Turkey at Ankara, Turkey
• Imam Husayn Mosque, Karbala – according to Shī‘ah belief,^[3] the head and body of Husayn ibn Ali, along with all others who fell at the Battle of Karbala are buried here.
• The Mausoleum of Khomeini in Tehran, Iran

[edit] Europe

• Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna
• Royal Mausoleum and the Duchess of Kent's Mausoleum at Frogmore, England
• Hamilton Mausoleum at Hamilton in Scotland
• Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow, Russia.

[edit] North America

• Henry Flagler's Mausoleum in St. Augustine Florida
• Grant's Tomb, New York City – loosely based on Mausolos' original mausoleum.
• Abraham Lincoln's tomb in Springfield, Illinois
• Miles Mausoleum in Arlington National Cemetery

[edit] Oceania

• Royal Mausoleum in Honolulu, Hawaii where the members of the Kamehameha and Kalākaua dynasties are interred.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Mausolea and Monuments Trust, gazetteer of mausolea in England