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.
17-585: Gol Gumbaz ( lit. ' Round Dome ' ), also written Gol Gumbad , is a 17th-century mausoleum located in Bijapur , a city in Karnataka , India . It houses the remains of Mohammad Adil Shah , seventh sultan of the Adil Shahi dynasty , and some of his relatives. Begun in the mid-17th century, the structure never reached completion. The mausoleum is notable for its scale and exceptionally large dome. The structure
34-658: 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 . A chapel mausoleum or mausoleum chapel in
51-454: A bulbous dome, line the four corners of the cube. The levels of the towers are marked by arcades and contain staircases within. The walls of the structure are built of dark grey basalt and decorated plaster . Each side wall of the cube bears three blind arches ; the spandrels of the arches contain medallion motifs, and the central arch on each side wall is filled with a stone screen containing doorways and windows. Cornices project from
68-425: A cemetery can be used for funeral services. Pendentives In architecture , a pendentive is a constructional device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or of an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere , taper to points at the bottom and spread at the top to establish the continuous circular or elliptical base needed for
85-567: 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. Later, mausolea became particularly popular in Europe and its colonies during
102-466: A dome. In masonry the pendentives thus receive the weight of the dome, concentrating it at the four corners where it can be received by the piers beneath. Prior to the pendentive's development, builders used the device of corbelling or squinches in the corners of a room. Pendentives commonly occurred in Orthodox , Renaissance , and Baroque churches, with a drum with windows often inserted between
119-486: A grandson. The cenotaphs mark the location of the actual tombs, which are found in a crypt underneath and accessed by a staircase under the western entrance of the mausoleum. Though typical of Indian Muslim tombs, this is the only instance of such a practice in Adil Shahi architecture. Mohammad Adil Shah's cenotaph is covered by a wooden canopy; Michell and Zebrowski speculate that this is a later addition. A half-octagonal room
136-515: Is an important example of Adil Shahi architecture. The building is one of those put by UNESCO on its "tentative list" to become a World Heritage Site in 2014, under the name Monuments and Forts of the Deccan Sultanate . The construction of the Gol Gumbaz began in the mid-17th century, during the close of Mohammed Adil Shah's reign, which was from 1627 to 1656. It is located directly behind
153-453: Is attached to the north facade of the building, though this is also a later addition. At the time of its construction, the Gol Gumbaz boasted the largest dome in the Islamic world. Its external diameter is nearly 44 m. The dome is built of brick and cemented with layers of lime. It has six small openings in its base as well as a flat section at its crown. The dome rests on a circular base, which
170-572: Is internally supported by interlocking pendentives , formed from eight intersecting arches that arise from the interior hall. Similar vaulting is found, though on a smaller scale, in the Jami Masjid of Bijapur and the Ibrahim Rauza . Outside of Bijapur, this pendentive support system is virtually unknown. The conceptual origin of the Gol Gumbaz's pendentives is debated, though a Central Asian influence has been suggested by multiple scholars. Around
187-430: The dargah of Hashim Pir , a Sufi saint; Richard Eaton views this as suggestive of the close relationship between the ruler and the saint. The mausoleum was never completed; construction may have halted in 1656 due to Mohammed Adil Shah's death that year. The Gol Gumbaz is one of the most ambitious structures built by the Adil Shahi dynasty. It is the most technically advanced domed structure to have been erected in
SECTION 10
#1732851965809204-447: The Deccan , and one of the largest single-chamber structures in the world. The architect of the structure is not known. Bianca Alfieri asserts that the building's size was a conscious decision made by Mohammed Adil Shah in order to rival the architecture of the Ibrahim Rauza , the tomb of the ruler's predecessor Ibrahim Adil Shah II . Alternatively, Elizabeth Merklinger suggests that the size
221-440: 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
238-445: The base of the dome is a gallery, accessed by the staircases in the towers. It is known as the 'whispering gallery' since the faintest sound from here is heard across the dome, due to sound reflecting off the dome. In Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1833 is a picture of Gol Gumbaz entitled Tomb of Mahomed Shah by Samuel Prout , engraved by R. Sands and accompanied by a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon reflecting on
255-504: The building, supported by corbels . Atop the cornices are rows of small arches, themselves topped by large merlons . Leaves surround the base of the mausoleum's dome, hiding the joint between the dome and its drum. The interior is a huge single chamber that is approximately 41.5 m across and 60 m high. In the centre of the chamber floor is a raised platform bearing the cenotaphs of Mohammad Adil Shah, his younger wife Arus Bibi, his older wife, his favourite mistress Rhamba, his daughter, and
272-740: The claim that he had a happy end. Mausoleum The word mausoleum (from the Ancient Greek : 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 . Mausolea were historically, and still may be, large and impressive constructions for
289-576: Was an attempt to assert the stature of the Adil Shahi dynasty, in light of its later absorption by the Mughal Empire . The mausoleum is contained in a larger walled complex, with other buildings such as a mosque, a naqqar khana , and a dharmshala . Despite the grand nature of the monument, the plan of the Gol Gumbaz is simple. It is a cube 47.5 m on each side, topped by a hemispherical dome of diameter approximately 44 m. Domed octagonal towers, each divided into seven floors and topped by
#808191