The most famous tombs of queens and queens of the past: From the legendary sorceress to the jealous wife

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It is customary to treat the last refuge of the deceased, no matter how the body is after death, with reverence. It is not surprising that the tombs of noble women, and even more so of rulers, are different and often become attractions - they are so majestically executed. Here is a list of the most famous tombs of queens and queens of the past.

Taj Mahal

This tomb is the first to be remembered when it comes to the tombs of queens. Shah Jahan, an Indian ruler from the Baburid dynasty, loved his wife Mumtaz Mahal so much that he never tired of visiting her chambers, so the queen had to give birth without stopping. The fourteenth birth finished her off.

In memory of his love, Shah Jahan built a real palace in which the ashes of Mumtaz Mahal still rest. Shah Jahan himself was buried near her. The palace was built for twenty years, a park and a wall with four minarets were erected around it, and inside there are two decorative tombs. It is decorative, not decorated. The real graves of the Shah and his wife are located underground.

Many tourists come to the Taj Mahal, fortunately, the size of the palace allows real crowds to pass through. Alas, the current environmental situation in Agra may soon make the grave inaccessible to tourists - its walls are gradually turning yellow and collapsing from car exhaust and dirty rainwater, and at some point it will become unsafe to be on the territory of the tomb.

Tomb of Maria Theresa

The famous imperial crypt in Vienna is located under the Capuchin Church. It contains the remains of almost one and a half hundred representatives of the Habsburg dynasty. True, not completely: according to tradition, before the funeral, hearts were removed from the bodies and buried separately, in other churches, in silver and copper urns.

There are excursions to the crypt under the Church of the Capuchins, so it's not a problem to see the tombstones of the emperors. Many of them are quaintly decorated. But the most famous tombstone is on the tomb of Maria Theresa and her husband. It is designed in the form of a matrimonial bed. The Empress and her husband are sitting in it, looking at each other, and Maria Theresia reaches for the sword.

Probably, this composition reflected the fact that the empress dearly loved her husband and demanded that he spend the night in her bed, and from some moment he began to avoid it. Maria Theresa had to literally use her power to keep her husband close to her at night.

Ascension necropolis

Crowds of tourists do not flock to the crypt of the Ascension Monastery in the Moscow Kremlin, and yet it is famous. It contains about eighty sarcophagi, the owners of sixty-eight of which are known: almost all of them are queens, princesses and princesses.

Thanks to the opening of the graves of the necropolis, many mysteries of history have become clear. For example, why did the wife of Ivan the Terrible, Anastasia, die, what did the noble women of the past look like (reconstructions have been made on their skulls, which have long become famous). And the grave of the girl Maria Staritskaya, the niece of Ivan the Terrible, killed by his favorite Malyuta Skuratov, told that even noble children in the Middle Ages suffered from rickets. In addition, it is striking how much Mary resembles her uncle the king in appearance. More precisely, they both look like a common ancestor - Sophia Paleologue.

Tomb of Queen Himiko

After one of the first rulers, Queen Himiko, there are so few references left that for a long time it was preferred to be considered a legend in general and associated with the myths about the goddess Amaterasu. Himiko is mentioned in the Chinese chronicles as the ruler of the country Yamatai, a shaman who was elected to the throne in order to end the endless war for him between the male leaders.

According to legend, in order not to lose magical power, the queen kept her virginity and did not stop her choice on any man. She surrounded herself with a thousand chosen girls who served her and occupied all the palace positions. In order to avoid personal contact with men and not be defiled, the queen passed her will on to the male leaders through her brother, the only man whom the guards were ordered to admit to the queen. The Chinese wrote that throughout the reign of Himiko, peace and prosperity reigned in the country of Yamatai, and after her death, wars and civil strife began again, devastating the region. A year later, the leaders came to their senses and elected a new shaman queen, Himiko's thirteen-year-old niece named Toyo.

At the very beginning of the twenty-first century, Japanese archaeologists discovered the ruins of an ancient palace, and in 2009 a grave was found near the ruins. The length of the grave reaches almost three hundred meters, which is very unusual and indicates the special status of the deceased. Radiocarbon analysis showed that the tomb was erected around the time that Himiko lived and died, and the discovery immediately transferred the queen from the category of mythical characters to the number of those who probably existed in reality.

For the Japanese, who believe that the country's rulers are descended from Amaterasu herself (like Himiko and her brother), this makes Himiko's grave sacred. When scientists had just confirmed that the tomb could belong to Himiko, the imperial family closed it for study (which, alas, almost always occurs at the expense of the desecration of the grave). It is also impossible to visit the grave freely. But even without many of her photographs, the grave instantly became a cult for the Japanese. Still, after all, Himiko is an important character in Japanese legends about the formation of its own special statehood.

Queen Louise's mausoleum

The tomb of the famous Prussian queen, who led the resistance to Napoleon, was erected right in the garden of the Charlottenburg Palace, and it can be visited just like the Taj Mahal. Louise died at the age of thirty-four from pneumonia, and her dearly loving husband deliberately chose a place for the grave that she liked during her lifetime: the cheerful Louise did not really like cemeteries, but she adored parks and gardens.

Later, the tomb was expanded to bury her husband and four other people there. But from all the sarcophagi, people come to see exactly Louise's tombstone. The marble queen lies with the face of a man who suffered for a long time and finally fell asleep; her right hand lies on her chest, as if trying to soothe the pain, her legs are crossed, a tiara is on her head. Louise was considered one of the most beautiful women in Prussia, but people loved her not for this, but for the firm will with which she resisted the invaders.

Westminster Abbey

English queens, reigning and not, have been buried for centuries in Westminster Abbey. Queen Anne, the last of the Stuarts on the English throne, Elizabeth I, the last of the Tudors, and many royal wives and daughters found their last refuge there.

All the royal tombs of Westminster Abbey are decorated with sculptural headstones. Some of them attract attention because they are brightly colored. And yet the most famous is the tombstone of the Good Queen Bess - Elizabeth I, although it is a one-color sculptural portrait of the deceased (that is, it does not differ in any way from most other graves). In any case, the stream of people wishing to look at the lying stone queens and kings does not dry out.

Mausoleum of Khyurrem Sultan

Despite the beautiful love story, Roksolana and Suleiman are buried separately from each other. The Roksolana mausoleum, where, by the way, two more people are buried, was erected in the courtyard of the largest mosque in Istanbul. Eight years later, a mausoleum for Suleiman was also erected there. He, too, is not alone. Why couldn't their graves be arranged side by side in the spacious mausoleums?

The fact is that Suleiman survived Roksolana, and then he would have to be buried in the grave of his deceased wife - and this was considered a belittling of the Sultan's dignity. Now, if Roksolana survived him, there would be no problems with burying her near her husband. In any case, its mausoleum inside is a real oriental fairy tale, and fans of its history must visit Istanbul and the grave of Khyurrem Sultan with a camera.

Tombs of Queens Nefertari and Titi

Several necropolises have been found in Egypt. One of them is called the "Valley of the Queens" - many of the wives of the pharaohs are buried there (although not only them). The most colorful of these tombs are at Nefertari and Titi. Photographs and hand-drawn sketches from the painting of the walls of these tombs have long been walking from publication to publication and on the Internet. The tomb of Nefertari, the main wife of Ramses the Great, is also very large for the queen - it has seven halls. A poem-epitaph from Ramses, one of the oldest examples of love poetry, is inscribed near the coffin: “My only love! No one is her rival, she is the most beautiful woman who lived on earth, who stole my heart in an instant!"

If on the frescoes of the grave of Nefertari, images of Osiris and Anubis, the god of the living and the god of the dead, are most often repeated, then in the tomb of Titi there are many portraits of Hathor, the goddess of heaven and beauty. It is believed that the husband of Titi was also Ramses, but the tenth (the Great was the second). For some time, visitors were allowed into the graves of the queens, but the wonderful frescoes began to deteriorate from breathing and lighting, so now not everyone can enter.

Hippopotamus, pain reliever and disgruntled wife: what killed the pharaohs of Egypt and their relatives - the question is no less interesting than how they were buried.