LA.219 MOD.5
jan29
MODULE_5.pdf
INTRODUCTION
This module will introduce you to many different sepulchral sites and tombs from many different places and cultures. What you want to focus on here is the way the landscape and architecture accommodate the sacred act of placing a dead body (or bodies) in a special place.
The burials you will see here, and in your reading, come from cultures that valued the dead as much as the living. This means they believed, in differing ways, that there was an existence after death, an afterlife. For this reason, it will be important to understand that most of these cultures believed not only in a physical body but also an intangible soul (they may not have consciously thought this or used these words, but the spiritual attitudes are reflected in their environments). After the body dies, the soul may still live on, hence the time and effort put into the construction of tombs for the dead. If putting the body back into the earth ("back," because many cultures believed the earth is from where the body came) was sufficient, then we would need nothing more. But the architecture and landscape architecture you will see in this module demanded more than simply the grave pit, and as essentially a house for the dead, the structure is a supremely symbolic—rather than practical—form.
As you make your way through this module, be curious and ask questions of the burial sites you see:
Are people allowed to visit the body, and if so, how?
Where does a visitor enter in relation to the placement of the body?
Is the tomb under the earth, on the level of the earth, or above the earth?
How many bodies are buried, one or many?
Can any "sacred motifs" be identified in the architecture and its landscape?
What can the burial sites tell us about the cultures who made them?
Module Learning Objectives Explore a diverse range of sepulchral architectures.
Articulate the symbolic effects of tomb architecture on the visitor.
Compare different strategies to housing the dead across architectural histories.
Readings A Global History of Architecture, 19–24, 41–43, 48–49, 79, 83, 163, 168, 183, 261–262, 520–525
World Architecture, all of sections 1.3 and 2.2; 250–255 (section 7.2)
Module Coursework
Read and view all module content and media in the pages that follow.
Complete all items in any Graded Coursework, Other Activities, and Quizzes and Exams areas included in this module.
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EARLY TOMB SITES
Menhirs
Different regions developed urban communities at different times. Western Europe saw hunting communities last longer than Eastern Europe. With early settlements, we see the remnants of religious ritual with spaces set aside for these activities. We start to find burial monuments for specific members of society. Common people were burned after their death or left in shallow graves or disposal sites, while the privileged or members of leadership were granted stone tombs and were frequently buried with artifacts, weapons, and vessels as well as ornaments or jewelry. Examples can be found predominantly in Western Europe. The simplest form is constituted from an upended stone called a menhir, and compositions of "great stones," called megaliths, are common prehistoric monuments. Historians believe that megalith constructions were organized for astronomical observations or marked tomb sites. A famous example dating back to the third millennium BCE can be found in Carnac in France in the form of a stone avenue.
Early Tomb Sites
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Early Western European megalith Title:
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Early Western European stone assembly Title:
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Tombs
While megalith assemblies often define movement or space by marking it, Neolithic stone tombs created enclosures. Dolmens are composed of upright stone slabs and one or several stone slabs on top. Corbelled construction was prevalent for tomb sites, with one example in present-day County Meath, Ireland from around 3100 BCE: the Newgrange Passage Grave.
Spiro Kostof explains:
The so-called Gallery Grave is a stone corridor closed off by a number of capstones laid in a row. The bodies were buried along the walls which sometimes converged toward one end in the form of a V. The Passage Grave is similar, but the corridor here culminates usually in a rounded burial chamber. Its walls are made of boulders piled in up irregular courses, a technique called cyclopean masonry. As the structure rises beyond a certain height, successive courses are made to project inward, narrowing the circumference of the chamber until the space is totally sealed off.
Spiro Kostof
These early architectural spaces follow simple geometric parameters, linear spaces, and circular or centralized spaces and their combinations.
Newgrange, Ireland
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EARLY EGYPTIAN TOMBS
Egyptian burial monuments were sealed chambers that preserved the body for the soul's return. Egyptian religion taught that a person's existence on Earth was followed by an afterlife in which the ka, or life force, was reunited with the ba, or physical manifestation. That unification resulted in akh, or spirit. Rituals performed in the tomb chambers were executed in order to ensure that the transformation from life to death happened successfully. Different burial practices arose in Upper and Lower Egypt. Land for cemeteries was not set aside. Southern burials were conducted in the desert, while in the Nile Delta, the dead were buried underneath the residential floors to keep the spirit at home. Pre-dynastic burial sites often were just oval or rectangular pits in the desert with a few grave goods added to them (e.g., food and tools for meals and hunting after death). Wealthier people began to expand the practice into chambers, lining the walls with matting from wood or mud brick and adding spaces for the grave goods accompanying the burial site. Instead of low mounds, the graves were covered by a rectangular structure called a mastaba (Arab for earthen bench).
These mastabas (seen in the first two images below) are excellent examples of architecture as symbolic form. What is meant by "symbolic"? A symbol is something that stands in the place of the thing it means. Like a sign, or signal—think of a traffic signal light that shows "red" for "stop"—it is not literally the act it means, but communicates to you what it means to say. The mastaba is a symbol of the afterlife. It is a sign which says, "someone is buried here." Importantly, the body is not even in the mastaba form itself, but deep underground (see image 2). A shaft descends, then shifts to the side, where the sarcophagus (a stone coffin) is placed. Egyptian sarcophagi were typically monolithic, which is to say, carved from one piece of stone (the lid and chamber fit together as though the stone were still in one piece). When many mastabas exist in one place, the array
Early Egyptian Tombs
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of houses for the dead can appear like a modern city block, and indeed, this kind of place where many burials exist together is called a necropolis, or "city of the dead" (necro "dead" + polis "city").
One early ruler was Menes, who was a ruler on earth and a manifestation of the god Horus, the falcon-headed god of the pharaohs. After their death, pharaohs would become identified with Osiris, father of Horus and ruler of the underworld, while his successor would become Horus. Osiris and Horus were connected to the sun god Ra, whose symbol was a stone of cone-shaped appearance. Many historians think that the cone-shaped stone was the basis of the later use of pyramid shapes on top of obelisks and mastabas and would later turn into a large symbol itself with the pyramids.
Egyptian Burial Monuments
Ancient Gardens and Architecture Pyramids, Temples, Ziggurats, and Obelisks
As civilizations grew in population and sophistication, the inhabited landscape took on a different form. The cosmological and religious imprints on the land took on a more architectural form in structures such as pyramids (burials for the pharaohs), temples, ziggurats (artificial mountains), and obelisks that were carefully placed in the landscape as
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General view of colonnaded processional hall
Funerary complex of King Djoser, Saqqara, Lower Egypt, c. 2630 BCE
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Reconstruction of mastaba tombs, Egypt
Funerary complex of King Djoser, Saqqara, Lower Egypt, c. 2630 BCE
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Funerary complex of King Djoser, Saqqara, Lower Egypt, c. 2630 BCE
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places of worship of the gods and burial sites.
In Egypt, natural phenomena such as the spring flooding of the Nile River, which gave new life to the mound of Elephantine (the island below the first cataract of the Nile) by offering a bounty of fish, insects, birds, and reptiles. This rejuvenation would not be possible without the help of the sun god Re that would beam down upon these mounds.
Ben-ben
To the early Egyptians, the mounds themselves seemed to be the generator of new life, and therefore became a sacred earth form known as the ben-ben. Since the pharaohs believed in rebirth and reunification with the Sun God Re, the sacred ben-ben was enlarged to monumental scales to create the Pyramids, which were to house the tombs of the pharaohs.
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Pyramids of Giza, Egypt (2601–2515 BCE)
Another great example of this type of monumental construction is the temples of Mentuhotep II (ruled 2009–1997 BCE) and Queen Hatshepsut (ruled 1478–1458 BCE) in Deir el-Bahri, Egypt.
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Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Luxor, Egypt
According to Illustrated History of Landscape Design, the temple of Queen Hatshepsut was "dramatically sited at the base of a cliff on the west bank of the Nile River," and "comprised a series of monumental terraces and colonnades symmetrically organized around a processional axis." This processional axis was meant to create drama, as one approached the temple.
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Processional Axis to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Luxor, Egypt
Egyptian Garden Design (1400 BCE)
About a thousand years after the construction of Stonehenge, along the Nile River in Egypt, a new kind of use for the landscape was being cultivated. In a painting that was found in a tomb in Thebes, an ancient Egyptian garden is depicted that is designed with an orthogonal grid pattern that had entries through two gates. One of these gates was cut into the wall of the garden facing a tree-lined path beside a canal, and the other through a porter's lodge. Inside the garden, date palms and sycamore trees created a lush canopy that provided much-needed shade against the heat of Egypt's intense heat. A large vineyard, fruit tree orchards, and four ponds were all integral parts of the design of this rather large garden. What is clearly apparent from the painting is that the garden was broken up into various garden "rooms," which were each planted with different types of trees.
Egyptian garden painting (1400 BCE)
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THE GREAT PYRAMIDS AT GIZA
Great Pyramids of Giza: Khufu (Cheops c. 2600–2550 BCE), Khafre (Chefren c. 2575–2525 BCE), and Menkaure (Mycerinus c. 2525–2475 BCE). Photograph by Frith Francis, 1858.
The evolution of what we now call the "true" pyramid started at Saqqara and proceeded through several major complexes and iterations—all built for the first pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, Sneferu (2575–2551 BCE)— before culminating in the Fourth Dynasty tombs at Giza, not far from Cairo. The three large pyramids at Giza, which were constructed from around 2570 to 2500 BCE, are the work of Sneferu's descendants, the Fourth Dynasty pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure (or, in the Greek transliteration, Cheops, Chepren, and Mycerinus).
The largest pyramid was erected for Khufu (2551–2528 BCE) and was planned from the beginning as a true pyramid of unprecedented proportions. A 755-square-foot base covers over thirteen acres and reaches its apex at 481 feet. Over 2.3 million stones of around 2,500 kilograms in weight were used for the construction of the structure.
The Great Pyramids at Giza
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Great Pyramid of Giza
The burial chamber, referred to as the King's Chamber, is built of granite, and the pyramid itself is built in limestone. One reaches it through a passage at the top of the Grand Gallery. The chamber itself is undecorated. There are three tomb-chambers, of which two, the central room and the granite burial chamber, are connected by an enormous grand gallery (154 feet long and 27 feet tall) with a corbelled roof of limestone slabs that ascend diagonally through the heart of the pyramid. The pyramid's exterior was covered with fine, polished limestone that emphasized the mathematical precision of a monument that strives dynamically upwards towards the heavens; it was on this "ramp to heaven" that the dead monarch was to rise after death. Little is left of the mortuary temple, the causeway, and valley temple that were part of one burial complex. Additional burial places are located in the three queen's pyramids to the east of Khufu's pyramid.
Next up was the pyramid of Khafre (2520–2494 BCE), son of Khufu, which sits on a 705-foot square and rises to a height of 471 feet, slightly smaller than Khufu's pyramid. At the center of the pyramid's base, there is a single tomb chamber accessed by a passageway in the north side. This pyramid is remarkable for some of the limestone casing at the apex. It is well preserved, offering a sense of what the original appearance of the pyramid might have been like.
Egyptian Burial Monuments: The Great Pyramids at Giza
The pyramid of Menkaure (2490–2471 BCE), Khafre's son, is the smallest of the Giza trio and was not finished by the time of his death.
Each pyramid was accompanied by ancillary temples, including one alongside the Nile where the mummification might have taken place. This river temple was connected to the upper, or mortuary, temple by a causeway at the base of the pyramid. A large sphinx was carved out of the natural rock ledge next to the upper temple.
Each pyramid served as an elaborate tomb for its pharaoh. The burial procedure for the pharaohs involved bringing the dead body by boat to the ancillary building at the edge of the Nile. The body would then be sown, washed, purified, and embalmed, or the embalmment would be re-enacted. A rite called "the Opening of the Mouth" would then take place; this rite enabled the king to speak once more after his death, and to enjoy offerings.
Never again would Egyptian rulers achieve the accumulation of labor forces large enough to build monuments such as these. However, much debate still exists regarding whether the pyramids were built with paid labor, slave labor, conscripted paid labor, or a combination of these.
Further Information
www.mfa.org/collection/ancient-egypt-nubia-and-the-near-east
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Giza: Pyramid of Chephren: view of pillared hall Valley Temple Description:
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Giza: Pyramid of Chephren: Sphinx, general view Description:
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QUEEN HATSHEPSUT'S MORTUARY COMPLEX
Djeser-Djeseru, Hatshepsut's Temple at Deir el-Bahri
You will recall from earlier the approach to the mortuary complexes at Deir el-Bahari. Particular interest should be taken in Queen Hatshepsut's who, in a cunning act of recycling, obtained the stones from the neighboring tomb complexes of her predecessors and used them for her own! Her entire complex could be called an "approach" up to the point one enters the mountain face. At this moment, one is going into the earth (like going underground, but horizontally). You can see this in the plan below.
Queen Hatshepsut was the first woman to receive the throne of Egypt, and she held the position for twenty years. In 1470 BCE, she commissioned Senmut to build her a mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri as an echo of the adjacent ramped temple. Queen Hatshepsut's temple includes several distinct elements:
A pyramid is absent from the funerary complex.
The royal person was featured no less prominently than Amun, an Egyptian deity.
Queen Hatshepsuts Mortuary Complex
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The site exhibits a sense of urgency for demonstrating nearness to the gods.
Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut
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Hatshepsut temple plan Description:
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Mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, c. 1479–1458 BCE, Egypt Description:
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THE TREASURY OF ATREUS
Besides the Cyclopean megalithic walls of the Citadel of Mycenae, another Mycenaean trademark was the tholos, or beehive tomb, the oldest of which dates back to 1500 BCE. A beehive tomb was a subterranean vault with an approach causeway, or dromos, leading to a domed chamber that rose above the ground and was covered with earth.
The most famous and architecturally significant beehive tomb, the Treasury of Atreus, was situated outside of the citadel of Mycenae. This particular beehive tomb had a 120-foot-long dromos that led through the side of a hill, and its doorway, was covered by a lintel block that extended across the facade and locked into the corridor walls. The curve of the rotunda started at floor level, so that the whole interior formed a sweeping arc over the buried prince.
The doorway is inspired by other civilizations' architecture: The downward tapering of the half-columns and their cushion capitals are redolent of Crete, and the relieving triangle at the second level, which reduces the weight over the lintel, was found in Egypt's Old Kingdom pyramids.
Mycenae
The Treasury of Atreus
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In The Mycenaean Age: A Study of the Monuments and Culture of Pre- Homeric Greece, Chrestos Tsountas and James Irving Manatt write:
As the "Treasury of Atreus" is the type of the tholos tomb in its highest structural perfection, as well as the most perfectly preserved monument of Mycenean architecture, we shall describe it in some detail. Starting about halfway up the eastern slope of the rocky ridge from a terrace of Cyclopean masonry, a horizontal passageway (or dromos) is hewn straight into the hillside. This dromos is 20 feet wide and 115 feet long, and its vertical sides, rising with the slope of the ridge, are at the end some 45 feet high. It is paved with a whitish earth brought from without and trodden hard and its sides are revetted with massive ashlar masonry, a single block which measures on the wall face 20 feet long and 4 feet high. By this avenue one approaches the imposing façade of the tomb a vertical wall 20feet wide and 46 feet high.
The Mycenaean Age: A Study of the Monuments and Culture of Pre-Homeric Greece
Between 1200 and 1100 BCE, Mycenaean settlements declined. Many historians think that it had to do with invasions by nomadic people from the East, who possibly boasted iron weapons that would have helped immensely in defeating the Mycenaeans, who used only bronze armory.
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Tholos (beehive) tomb plan: bottom section Description:
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Treasury of Atreus, interior Description:
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Alert Note: If you would like to read further in The Mycenaean Age, the text is available here.
Mycenaean tomb
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THE GREEK THOLOS
The Mycenaean tholos became a sepulchral type that evolved with further use. The Greeks would later borrow and elaborate on it.
The fourth century saw a decline in Athens' influence in the ancient world. However, it did not result in a decline in artistic creativity; rather, this era saw increased experimentation with style and subject matter. While classical conventions were still observed, they were no longer seen as strict and unchangeable rules. Architectural sculpture, always an integral part of the temple pediment, adopted monumental proportions and increased levels of realism and dramatic style.
A new, circular form of building, used variously as a tomb and a meeting place, also emerged during this period. The form, called a tholos, had a long history in Greece, even going back to Mycenaean beehive tombs, and can be seen in the famed sanctuary of Athena at Delphi. In this example, the exterior boasted a ring of Doric columns, and remnants found on the site indicate that the temple also had an inner ring of columns with capitals decorated in curling acanthus leaves. In Roman times, this new style would come to be called the Corinthian order.
Monumental tombs were erected as memorials to wealthy aristocratic patriarchs of this period. One example was the spectacular Tomb of Mausolos, a prince of Karia, at Halicarnassus in Asia Minor.
Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia
The Greek Tholos
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Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, with tholos at center Description:
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Delphi: tholos plan reconstruction Description:
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EARLY CHRISTIAN TOMBS
The Christian faith's ambitions required a new emphasis in architecture. The ancient Greeks built their temples on sites carefully chosen to correspond to the earthly activities of the gods, but the first Christian architects didn't have to look nearly as far back for locations reportedly marked by Jesus and his followers. Accordingly, devotional buildings began cropping up at sites that figured prominently in the story of Jesus.
Catacomb of Priscilla
Buildings, or at least dedicated spaces, were also necessary for the execution of specific Christian rites. Early Christians comprised a plebeian movement that followed Christ, who they believed sacrificed himself for the salvation of the world and then rose from the dead. Christian worship revolved around Christ's body, symbolized in bread and wine, and the mystery of transubstantiation, as well as the celebration of the Eucharist, or communion, which was symbolic of the Last Supper and Christ's sacrifice. Ritual baptism was necessary in order to partake of the body of Christ, and, therefore, Christian architecture also had to provide for two sacraments: mass and baptism.
Early Christian Tombs
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Early Christians established modest places of worship in houses that were inconspicuous from the exterior. One existing example of such a structure is Dura Europos, a simple peristyle house built around 200 CE and altered in 231 CE to serve a Christian congregation. The house provided a meeting room for 50 people, a raised area for the bishop's raised platform, called a dais, a space for non-baptized members, and a small room with a canopied tub for baptism. By the year 200 CE, numerous Christian communities had established themselves throughout Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. Around 400 CE, Christianity had expanded into Spain, England, Africa, and Eastern Europe.
Cemeteries, another early manifestation of Christian beliefs, provided sleeping places (which is what coemeterium means in Latin) for the dead to await their raising. Christians adopted the pagan and Jewish traditions of burying their dead underground, as in the catacombs in Rome. These subterranean cemeteries started out in an organized fashion but later grew into maze-like, multi-level cities of the dead under the actual city of Rome.
Dura Europos and the Catacombs, Rome
Though modest, these early Christian meeting houses and graveyards initiated a new building culture that would eventually provide some of the greatest achievements in architectural history, including the Hagia Sofia, Romanesque pilgrimage churches, and Gothic cathedrals.
Roth writes:
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Isometric view, Dura Europos, Christian community house, shortly after 200 and c.
230
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Wall painting: Christ and St. Peter walking on water Description:
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With Christianity's shift from being a clandestinely practiced faith of comparatively few, secreted worship to large congregational gatherings, there arose the problem of devising a building type appropriate both functionally and symbolically for public worship. Unlike other religions, in which individuals made private offerings, Christianity was a congregational religion, with a liturgy in which the faithful gather together as a communal body to offer gifts and share a common meal. The Christians required not only buildings that would accommodate large numbers of converts but also enclosed spaces that would facilitate hearing the spoken word and chanted psalms.
Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning
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CHRISTIAN MARTYRIA
In addition to the classic basilica building type for churches, early Christians erected other religious structures that served a very specific religious purpose: martyria, baptisteries, and mausolea.
Martyria are buildings that commemorate saints or sites that were especially important to the Christian faith. Martyria could attract large numbers of people attending services and pursuing pilgrimage and therefore needed to accommodate the considerable number of people who would be viewing the tomb or shrine around which the martyria were built.
Old St. Peter's in Rome (circa 318 to 322 CE), a predecessor of the present Basilica of St. Peter, started out as a martyrium over the tomb of the apostle St. Peter. The building follows a basilica plan, with double isles on
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Christian Martyria
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Sant'Apollinare in Classe, column capital and impost block, nave Description:
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Sant'Apollinare in Classe, interior Description:
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each side of the nave, a transverse element—known as a transept—that projects beyond the side walls, and a preceding atrium. The tomb of St. Peter rested at the junction of the apse and the transept, which accommodated visitors coming to see the shrine. The enormous 330-by- 64-foot nave, meanwhile, functioned as a covered cemetery.
Aerial perspective drawing of original St. Peter's basilica
This layout acted as a model for several later churches, including the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, which Constantine constructed in 333 CE over the grotto that is believed to be the birthplace of Jesus. The building was also a basilica preceded by an atrium, but instead of transepts, the church features an octagon at the head of the nave. Pilgrims could circulate a passage around the octagon and view the grotto, situated below, through an opening in the floor.
Church of the Nativity: Bethlehem, 333 CE
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CHRISTIAN MAUSOLEA
Mausolea are buildings erected as the tombs of important persons within society or a community of faith. Early Christians followed Roman practices for building mausolea. The structures, which like the baptisteries usually featured a central plan, also served as models for later domed churches.
Mausoleum of Constantia (now Santa Costanza), exterior, Rome, 350 CE
The mausoleum for Constantia, Constantine's daughter, was built around 350 CE, based on a circular floor plan and basilica-type cross section. Lower aisles are arranged around a higher nave lit by clerestory windows, and the dome features an encircling ambulatory, which focused the visitors' attention on the sarcophagus in the center of the building. Twelve sets of double, polished-marble columns support the drum wall on which the dome rises, and the aisle vaults feature elaborate mosaics. This mausoleum is now the church of Santa Costanza.
Christian Mausolea
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Mausoleum of Constantia (now Santa Costanza), interior, Rome, 350 CE
The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna displays even more elaborate decoration. Built in 425 CE on a Greek cross plan—which features arms of equal length—the structure was built to house the tombs of Galla Pacidia and her family. Galla Placidia ruled the western empire after her half- brother, the western emperor Honorius, died, and she commissioned several other church buildings, all which did not survive to the present.
Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, 425 CE
Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, 425 CE, cross-section drawing
While the exterior of the mausoleum exhibits a simple brick facade, the rich and glowing interior includes marble floors and mosaics on the upper walls and vaults. Barrel vaults enclose the arms of the cross, while a dome on pendentives—or triangles used to transform a square bay into a circle— tops the raised crossing. Small windows glazed with alabaster panes cast a soft light on the mosaics.
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MUGHAL TOMB GARDENS
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Mughal Tomb Gardens
Mughal tomb gardens, much like the royal pleasure gardens, were built in the chahar bagh fashion. They are meant to emulate the heavenly gardens that were promised in the Qur'an. Tomb gardens contain two important differences:
They are devoid of terraces and active water.
The pavilion building is not centralized.
Tomb gardens are devoid of terraces and active water. They were built as almost flat plains with just enough of a slope to allow the gravitational flow of water through the grid of chahar bagh canals to prevent the water from stagnating.
The other significant difference between the tomb gardens and royal pleasure gardens is the placement of the pavilion buildings, or chabutras. In royal pleasure gardens, the pavilion buildings are built at the nexus of the water canals that create the chahar bagh structure. However, in the Mughal tomb gardens, the pavilion buildings are built at the farthest end of the garden to ensure the tomb is visible from all corners of the garden, as well as to give it locational prominence.
Mughal Tomb Gardens
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ISLAMIC MAUSOLEA
Mausolea play an important role in the Islamic building culture. Mosques often include their founder's tomb, but free-standing structures are very common as well. Islamic mausolea were most likely inspired by classical and Christian culture, where mausolea were very common; martyria commonly held bodies or relics of saints and commemorated persons or events relevant to the larger congregation. The relic cult reached Byzantine Syria in the fourth century and caused many of these structures to be erected, a strategy that survived the Arab invasion. The Muslims might have derived inspiration from these Christian precedents.
Ismail the Samanid Mausoleum (9th–10th centuries CE)
Free-standing tombs were frequently configured as brick cubes crowned by a dome, like the tomb of Ismail the Samanid in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. The Shah-I Zinda necropolis in Smarqand shows a cluster of mausolea arranged along a set of pathways. This early Timurid necropolis houses
Islamic Mausolea
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mausolea for members of the royal family. It added to the believed location of the tomb of Qutham b. al-'Abbas who was a companion of the Prophet Muhammad.
Hillenbrand writes:
The honored place that the mausoleum enjoyed within the context of multiple foundations indicates clearly enough that its function was not limited simply to a place of burial and commemoration. In fact, mausolea occupied a crucial place in medieval Islamic society.
One of the most famous tombs of the Islamic tradition is the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, built between 1631 and 1647 by Jahangir's son and dedicated to his late wife. The Taj Mahal was built by three architects and numerous craftsmen from Persia and all over Asia. The site integrates building and landscape in a symmetrical layout, lavishly decorated and of monumental scale.
Islamic Architecture
Taj Mahal
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Taj Mahal, Agra, India Title:
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Taj Mahal, Agra, India Title:
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Mumtaz-i-Mahal
The Taj Mahal of Agra, India (1632–48) is the most prominent of the Mughal tomb gardens. It was built by Shah Jahan over a sixteen-year period to honor his beloved wife, "Mumtaz-i-Mahal" (Chosen One of the Palace), who died in 1631 bearing their fourteenth child.
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Chahar bagh gardens of Taj Mahal
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Taj Mahal, as seen from the river (L) Taj Mahal Pavilion (R)
The pavilion's minarets were purposely placed further from the building than normal in order to give the structure more prominence.
View of the entry gate to the gardens from the pavilion
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CONCLUSION
The sites from this module and your reading come from cultures that valued the dead as much as the living. They believed that there was an existence after death, an afterlife. After the body dies, the soul may still live on, hence the time and effort put into the construction of tombs for the dead and their surrounding landscapes.
Remember to be curious and ask questions of the tombs:
Are people allowed to visit the body, and if so, how?
Where does a visitor enter in relation to the placement of the body?
Is the tomb under the earth, on the level of the earth, or above the earth?
How many bodies are buried, one or many?
Can any "sacred motifs" be identiGed in the architecture and its landscape?
What can the burial sites tell us about the cultures who made them?
Module Coursework Complete all items in any Graded Coursework, Other Activities, and Quizzes and Exams areas included in this module.
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