Mausoleum - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

MAUSOLEUM, the term given to a monument erected to receive the remains of a deceased person, which may sometimes take the form of a sepulchral chapel. The term cenotaph (Gr. empty, TacbOS, tomb) is employed for a similar monument where the body is not buried in the structure. The term "mausoleum" originated with the magnificent monument erected by Queen Artemisia in 353 B.C. in memory of her husband King Mausolus, of which the remains were brought to England in 1859 by Sir Charles Newton and placed in the British Museum. The tombs of Augustus and of Hadrian in Rome are perhaps the largest monuments of the kind ever erected.