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Why Is It Called A Mausoleum?
A visit to the Empire State Building a number of years ago included a display of the Seven Wonders Of The Ancient World. Among them was a tomb for Mausolus. We assumed, correctly, that's where the term Mausoleum came from. Here's a little history for those of you who are curious.
Despite being a Persian provincial ruler of Halicarnassus (modern day Turkey), Mausolus was fluent in Greek and admired Greek architecture and statuary. He spent incredible amounts of tax money to build a spectacular city, designed by two Greek architects. This included his own pre-need entombment that was built around 352 BC.
Roman author, Pliny, recorded that the tomb was rectangular, measuring 63 feet on its longest side. It was surrounded by 36 columns, and on top there was a pyramid of 24 steps, which brought the entire structure to approximately 150 feet tall. A stairway guarded by lion sculptures led to the top of a platform where the outer walls featured many statues of gods and goddesses. At each corner, stone warriors mounted on horseback guarded the tomb. At the center of the platform, the marble tomb rose as a square, tapering block to one-third of the tomb's height. This section was covered with bas-reliefs depicting many scenes including a battle of centaurs with lapiths and Greeks in combat with Amazons. Standing between each pair of columns was a statue, and behind these were the solid blocks that carried most of the weight of the tomb's massive roof. The pyramidal roof, which comprised most of the final third of the height featured four massive horses pulling a chariot in which rode statues of Mausolus and Artemisia.
Between the 12th and 15th centuries the tomb was destroyed by earthquakes, and around 1494 the Knights of St. John of Rhodes used many of the polished blocks found in the rubble to construct a fortification, which is shown in the top photo.
In the 1850s the British conducted research and purchased the land where they thought the tomb had been. Excavations of the site (second photo) revealed the statues of Mausolus and Artimisia, a portion of a six foot wheel from their chariot atop the tomb, and many partial statues of horses, lions, soldiers and gods.
In these photos the next-to-last image shows the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne (inspired by the original design) and the last photo shows a scale model of a reconstruction of the Mausoleum found in Istanbul.
Today, the term Mausoleum is used to refer to almost any above-ground entombment. Some are walk-in types, while others may contain only single, double, triple or quadruple arrangements of caskets only.
While a mausoleum certainly doesn't fit everyone's budget, it's nice to know how to put your hands on design options when you need them. Our brochures and books as well as our Online Catalog & Monument Designer feature a variety of mausolea in various sizes and configurations.
A Walk-In From The Design Mart Online Monument Designer.
A Few Of The Smaller Choices In The Designer.
We also offer the McNeel Book, which has its very own mausoleum section including blueprints. If you decide you'd like to add the 4-volume set of McNeel CDs to your library you may take 10% off during the month of November.
Just A Few Of The Mausoleums And Blueprints From The McNeel Book.
For more information on any of Design Mart's brochures, books, or software please visit www.designmart.com, email d-mart@designmart.com or call 800-736-7455.