21 Tombs Around the World
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A tomb, according to Britannica’s entry, is “a home or house for the dead.” Here are 21 tombs (or sites of many individual tombs) from around the world that show the varied ways that different cultures at different times have housed and honored their dead.
Earlier versions of the descriptions of these tombs first appeared in 1001 Amazing Places You Must See Before You Die, edited by Richard Cavendish (2016). Writers’ names appear in parentheses.
Tomb of Kazanlak (Kazanlak, Bulgaria)
Dating from the 4th century BCE, this ancient tomb is probably that of an important chieftain of the Odrysae—a tribe that occupied the southern part of the ancient Thracian territory in what is now central Bulgaria—and it is located only 5 miles (8 km) from the Thracian capital of Seuthopolis. The site was discovered by chance and was not excavated until 1944. The tomb is a tholos—also known as a beehive tomb because of its resemblance to a traditional tapered dome beehive—and it is likely to have been inspired by the earlier Mycenean tholos tombs on the Greek mainland, of which the so-called Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae itself is the best-known example.
This Thracian tomb is on a much smaller scale, however, with the main burial chamber only 10.5 feet (3.2 meters) high, compared with the Treasury of Atreus, which reaches 42.6 feet (13 meters) at its highest point. As with the other Thracian tholoi in the area, this well-preserved tomb is divided into three main areas—an antechamber, a main burial chamber, and a corridor connecting the two—but it is unique for the incredibly detailed murals that cover the walls of all three sections, depicting geometric patterns, battles, prancing horses, and a touching farewell banquet for a dead man and his wife. As well as their beauty, these murals are celebrated for their near-pristine condition, and they are regarded as some of the best-preserved artworks from the Hellenistic world.
Such is the importance of the treasured murals that the entire tomb is housed within a protective enclosure with entry restricted to those who can show a specific need to study the murals themselves. Most visitors experience the tomb through an exact replica constructed nearby. The tomb was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979. (Andrew Smith)
Mausoleum of the first Qin emperor (Xi’an, China)
The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (c. 259–210 BCE), unified China into a single political entity. He standardized scripts, weights, measures, and coins throughout the territory, and roads, fortifications, and major defensive walls were built during his reign. However, the most impressive architectural project that the emperor ordered was his own extensive burial complex. The tombs of Chinese emperors and high officials were designed to replicate their life on earth. Everyday utensils, bronzes representing ancestors, musical instruments, wives, courtesans, and members of the court were often buried with the deceased to ensure a safe passage.
According to the records of the 2nd-century-BCE historian Sima Qian, the mausoleum is a miniature representation of the universe. The 8,000 life-size soldiers (sometimes accompanied by horses) of the famous terra-cotta army were modeled on human figures and are holding real swords and spears in order to guard the emperor’s necropolis. Each soldier has been given a unique facial expression, creating a realistic impression of individuality. To make them appear even more authentic, weapons, clothes, and hairstyles vary from one soldier to the next. This vast terra-cotta army testifies to the absolute power and great ambitions of the first emperor of China. (Sandrine Josefsada)
Ming tombs (Beijing, China)
In 1402 Zhu Di (also known by the imperial name of Yongle) seized the Chinese throne from his nephew Zhu Yunwen. In doing so, he became the third Ming emperor, and he moved the capital from Nanjing to his own city, Beijing. When his wife Empress Xu died in 1407, Zhu Di sent a diviner to find a suitable location for an imperial burial ground. The chosen area was good for both scenery and military defense, as it was surrounded on three sides by mountains. Construction began in 1409, and 13 of the 16 Ming emperors were eventually buried there, the last tomb dating from 1644.
The site of the tombs covers 15 square miles (40 square km). Although there is variation in the scale and grandeur of the tombs, all follow the same basic layout. Each mausoleum is surrounded by a wall and entered through the Gate of Prominent Favor. This leads to the Hall of Prominent Favor used for the offering of sacrifices and worship by the deceased emperor’s descendants. The halls are generally made of nanmu wood, which was favored in the Ming era. Behind the hall is the walled burial mound for the emperor and empress, and in front of this is the Soul Tower. This small building holds a stela bearing the emperor’s posthumous title. Surrounding the complex were the quarters of the officials who were in charge of offerings. Bricks used in the construction weighed about 55 pounds (25 kg) and had the word shou (longevity) imprinted. The scale of the tombs varied partly according to whether they were built by the emperor himself or by his descendants.
The tombs are approached by a long sacred way lined with statues of animals and officials. Today only a few of the tombs are open; of these, Zhu Di’s tomb is the most impressive. (Mark Andrews)
Mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen (Nanjing, China)
Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925) is today regarded as the father of modern China. An anti-monarchist, he spent many of his earlier years in exile after a failed republican uprising in 1895. In 1911 Sun declared China a republic. When he died in 1925, the embryonic republic was still far from stable, the new government having only limited control over the country at large.
Sun requested to be buried in Nanjing—the city in which he first proclaimed the republic—but he probably did not have in mind the grandeur of the mausoleum built in his honor and completed in 1929. More than 40 designs were submitted for the site on Purple Mountain. The selected design by Lu Yanzhi was a modern interpretation of ancient classical Chinese tomb design.
Looking like a bell from the air, the design and scale are similar to the tombs of the emperors. A marble memorial archway marks the beginning of the site, which is laid out on a north-south axis. Beyond a path lined with pine and cypress trees, there is a formal three-arched entrance with copper doors. Behind this is a marble pavilion in which there is a 30-foot- (9-meter-) high stela. From here a steep staircase leads up the mountain to the large memorial hall, which contains a marble seated statue of Sun with the flag of the republic tiled on the ceiling. To the north is a circular chamber containing the recessed marble sarcophagus complete with a prostrate statue of Sun on the top. (Mark Andrews)
Kom el-Shoqafa catacombs (Alexandria, Egypt)
Alexandria was founded by and named in honor of Alexander the Great, who conquered Egypt in the 4th century BCE. The city became the cultural capital of the Greco-Roman world in the eastern Mediterranean, famed for its magnificent library and its lighthouse (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), although neither has survived.
One day in 1900, a man was riding his donkey when the animal stumbled in a hole in the path. This accident led to the rediscovery of a labyrinth of catacombs, which might have begun as a private family tomb but developed into the biggest Greco-Roman necropolis in the country.
The complex was excavated to a depth of about 115 feet (35 meters), with three levels of rooms and tunnels. Bodies were lowered down a shaft, which was encircled by a spiral staircase for visitors, into a passage. This led to a domed central rotunda and a banqueting hall where relatives feasted in memory of, and in close proximity to, their dead. It was thought unlucky to take the dishes away, so they were smashed in situ—hence the name of the catacombs, which means “Mounds of Shards.” Some corpses were buried in niches, and there were also urns containing the ashes of cremated bodies.
The catacomb decorations are an unusual blend of ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman motifs and themes. The Egyptian god Anubis, for instance, who was linked with rituals for the dead, is shown as a Roman legionary in armor, whereas giant serpents and Medusa heads create an almost cinematic atmosphere. Part of the complex was dedicated to the Greek goddess Nemesis. (Richard Cavendish)
Tutankhamen’s tomb (near Luxor, Egypt)
The Valley of the Kings in the desert to the west of Luxor was the burying place of the pharaohs of the New Kingdom period, from the 16th century BCE, who made Egypt the heart of an empire and the most powerful country in the ancient world. The graves were plundered by tomb robbers, but in 1922 the English archeologist Howard Carter discovered a tomb that was still almost intact and contained astonishing treasures of Egyptian art and craftsmanship. Carter and his financial backer, the 5th earl of Carnarvon, were the first after thousands of years to enter the grave of the young king Tutankhamen. The world’s media made much of the event with the notion that a fatal curse would destroy everyone involved.
The discovery made Tutankhamen the most famous of the pharaohs, even though he had died after a reign of only a few years. His fame stems from the fact that his tomb was found intact with its magnificent tomb treasures, rather than from the historical relevance of his reign. Tutankhamen became king at the age of nine, and political decisions would have been largely taken by advisers such as the vizier Ay, who became his successor. The treasures continue to draw huge and fascinated crowds every time they are put on show. They include the king’s golden coffin and golden mask, his carved throne, model ships, jewelry, lamps, jars, chariots, boomerangs, and bows and arrows. There were vivid painted scenes on the tomb walls and even long-wilted bunches of flowers left with his corpse.
For years it was suggested that Tutankhamen had been murdered, but a thorough reexamination of his mummy in 2005 did not support the idea; it suggested that his leg was so badly broken that it caused a fatal infection. More than 60 other tombs in the Valley of the Kings have been excavated. (Richard Cavendish)
Napoleon’s tomb (Paris, France)
The grandeur of the tomb of Napoléon Bonaparte at Les Invalides accords well with his imperial ambitions. The posthumous journey of his remains to their final resting place was a tortuous one, however, and his tomb was completed 40 years after his death. Napoleon died in exile on the island of St. Helena in 1821, six years after his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. He was buried on the island because the memories of his campaigns remained fresh for the British and for the new regime in France. Permission to return his remains to France was not granted until 1840, when his body was shipped back to Paris and given a state funeral. It was then placed in a temporary tomb until Louis Visconti designed his elaborate monument in the Dôme des Invalides. This was not the site that Napoleon had wanted, but Les Invalides had been built as a home for war veterans, and the church was certainly grand enough for an emperor.
Visconti’s dramatic concept was to build a crypt without a roof so that spectators could gaze down at the pillared chamber from ground level. Like a latter-day pharaoh, Napoleon’s body was placed in seven coffins, one fitting inside the next. The outermost sarcophagus is made of red porphyry, resting on a base of green granite. Encircling this, the names of his principal battles are inscribed within a laurel crown. Similarly, the 12 statues set against the columns symbolize his major campaigns. Several members of Napoleon’s family, including his son, are also in this chamber, together with some of France’s most distinguished military leaders. (Iain Zaczek)
Macedonian royal tombs (Verghina, Greece)
The small farming village of Verghina in northern Greece is at first glance largely unremarkable, but it is just outside here, in the foothills of the Vérmio Mountains, that an amazing archeological find was made in 1977.
The area surrounding Verghina was the site of the ancient royal capital city of Macedon, Aigai, and had been inhabited since the Bronze Age. It flourished for centuries and became the seat of the wealthy Macedonian kings. In 1977 the Greek archeologist Manolis Andronicos discovered a number of tombs and, in particular, an impressive tumulus he believed to contain the remains of the great Macedonian king Philip II, father of Alexander the Great. Within the two-chambered tomb was a golden chest bearing the emblem of the Macedonian royal family and containing the skeleton of a man. In the adjacent chamber were the remains of a woman in a similar chest. Further excavations revealed another tomb of similar state thought to be that of Alexander IV, Alexander the Great’s son. Researchers who have dated the first tomb to 317 BCE, however, have raised some doubt of Andronicos’s identification of Philip II, and the remains may instead be those of Philip III, the illegitimate son of Philip II.
Despite the controversy, nothing can detract from the enormous importance of this find, added to which the tomb contains numerous artifacts and exquisite wall paintings in brilliant colors that shed light on Greek painting techniques.
The excavations at this site, and the continued finds in the area, are some of the most important of modern times. The tombs were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996. (Tamsin Pickeral)
Early Christian necropolis (Pécs, Hungary)
In the 4th century, Pécs was a Roman town known as Sopianae, whose inhabitants buried their dead in a nearby cemetery, or necropolis. Today this ancient Christian burial site is a popular tourist attraction and is protected by UNESCO as part of its World Heritage List. The tombs themselves are in underground chambers; on the ground above these chambers, some memorials to the dead still remain.
By the 4th century, Christians were, by and large, no longer persecuted by Rome. The emperor Constantine I had converted to Christianity, and the Edict of Milan led to toleration of this new religion. Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, and Sopianae became one of the most important centers in the early Christian world.
For many centuries the ancient tombs of modern-day Pécs lay undisturbed; this was to change with the arrival of archeologists in the 18th century, and the work they began has continued to the present day. Hundreds of tombs have been found, as well as a number of burial chambers. The necropolis is remarkably well preserved, its tombs still resplendent with murals that depict biblical stories, scenes from everyday life, and images of Christian rituals. They are a rich source of information about the earliest days of Christianity. Many of the tombs lie beneath the stunning cathedral basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul, parts of which date to the 11th century. This elegant, ornate church with its four tapering steeples continues the tradition of a Christian place of worship on this site—a site that also exhibits signs of human occupation stretching back several millennia before the birth of Christ. (Lucinda Hawksley)
Quṭb Shāhī tombs (near Golconda, India)
Golconda was a famous fort and commercial center in the 13th and 14th centuries—it was described as a flourishing city by Marco Polo in 1292—but it was only with the emergence of the Quṭb Shāhī rulers in the 16th century that it became a dynastic capital.
The royal tombs are located in a landscaped garden to the northwest of the fort, and the entire dynasty was buried here, apart from two members who died in exile. The construction of each tomb was personally supervised by the sultan during his lifetime. The style of Islamic funerary architecture is distinctive: each tomb has an onion-shaped dome resting on a cube with decorated minarets at the corners, surrounded by a richly ornamented arcade. Many of the larger tombs are two stories high. Built of local granite and plaster, they stand on a raised platform reached by flights of steps and were originally faced in enamel or glazed green and turquoise tiles that were inscribed with verses from the Qurʾān.
The most spectacular tomb, standing more than 180 feet (55 meters) high, including its 60-foot- (18-meter-) high dome, belongs to Muḥammad Qulī Quṭb Shah, the founder of Hyderabad. The tombs once contained interior decorations including carpets, chandeliers, and velvet canopies on silver poles. Golden spires were fitted on the sarcophagi of the sultans to distinguish them from those of other less important members of the royal family. During the Quṭb Shāhī period, the numerous royal tombs were held in such great veneration that criminals who took refuge here were automatically granted pardon. (Lesley Levene)
Naqsh-e Rostam (near Shīrāz, Iran)
The enigmatic tombs and rock-cut reliefs at Naqsh-e Rostam derive their modern Persian name from medieval tales of the Persian hero Rostam. When Arab armies brought Islam to Persia in the 7th century, many pagan monuments were destroyed. Later, Persian scholars surmised that the reliefs represented the Islamic hero Rostam and preserved them.
It is now known that the reliefs that surround the rock-cut tombs in the sheer cliff face represent the first and final stages of this monument to kingship. A partially destroyed image of a figure in the left side of the cliff depicts an Elamite priest-king. The Elamites controlled a powerful early state based around southwestern Iran during the late 2nd millennium BCE. The second phase of the monument provides the basic structure around which later Sasanian elements developed. The growth of the powerful Achaemenian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great, led his successor Darius I to build his fabulous palace at Persepolis. On discovering the towering cliff etched with ancient memorials dedicated to kingship only a few miles north of his new palace, Darius had four burial tombs carved there. The Achaemenid kings held the prophet Zoroaster in high regard. Sometime during the dynasty, a curious cubic structure was built at the base of the cliff, later linked to Zoroaster. Its purpose is still unknown.
The expansion of the later Persian-speaking Zoroastrian Sasanian dynasty led to expansion of the site. Seven rock-cut reliefs depict rulers of the dynasty receiving their royal insignia from Ahura Mazdā, the Zoroastrian herald of good. The earliest investiture scene of Ardashīr I also contains the first recorded use of the name “Iran.” With the overthrow of the Persian Sasanian state by the Arab armies of Islam, understanding of the iconography of this magnificent site passed into folklore. (Iain Shearer)