Mausoleum Explained

A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb, or the tomb may be considered to be within the mausoleum.

Overview

The word mausoleum (from the Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: μαυσωλεῖον) derives from the Mausoleum at 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.[1]

Mausolea were historically, 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 in necropoles or along roadsides: the via Appia Antica retains the ruins of many private mausolea for kilometres outside Rome. When Christianity became dominant, mausolea were out of use.[2]

Later, mausolea became particularly popular in Europe and its colonies during the early modern and modern periods. 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". In Europe, these underground vaults are sometimes called crypts or catacombs.

Notable mausoleums

See main article: List of mausoleums.

Africa

Asia, Eastern, Southern, Central, and Southeast

Afghanistan

Bangladesh

China

India

Indonesia

Japan

Malaysia

Pakistan

Philippines

Taiwan

Others

Asia, western

Europe

See also: Burial sites of European monarchs and consorts.

South America

Argentina

Bolivia

Brazil

Chile

Colombia

Ecuador

Paraguay

Peru

Uruguay

Venezuela

North America

Canada

Cuba

Dominican Republic

El Salvador

Guatemala

Haiti

Honduras

Mexico

Nicaragua

Panama

United States

Oceania

See also

Notes

  1. The plurals mausoleums and mausolea are both used in English, although mausoleums is more common.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Toms . J. Mason . Arkansas Listings in the National Register of Historic Places: The Community Mausoleums of Cecil E. Bryan . Arkansas Historical Quarterly . Winter 2019 . 78 . 4 . 423–431 . 0004-1823.
  2. Paul Veyne, in A History of Private Life: I. From Pagan Rome to Byzantium, Veyne, ed. (Harvard University Press) 1987:416.
  3. Book: al-Qummi, Ja'far ibn Qūlawayh . trans. Sayyid Mohsen al-Husaini al-Mīlāni . Kāmil al-Ziyārāt . 2008 . Shiabooks.ca Press . 63.

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