A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of past events. They are frequently used to improve the appearance of a city or location. Cities that are planned such as Washington D.C. Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790. Article One of the United States Constitution provides for a federal district, distinct from the states, to serve as the permanent national capital. The City of, New Delhi New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi and Brasília Brasília is the capital of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 (3,599,000 in the metropolitan area) as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the fourth largest city are often built around monuments. The Washington Monument The Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington. The monument, made of marble, granite, and sandstone, is both the world's tallest stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk, standing 555 feet 5⅛ inches .[n 1] There are's location (and vertical geometry, though not physical detail) was conceived to help organize public space in the city before it was ever connected with George Washington George Washington led America's Continental Army to victory over Britain in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and later became the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797. His role in the revolution and subsequent independence and formation of the United States was significant, and he is seen by Americans as the ". Older cities have monuments placed at locations that are already important or are sometimes redesigned to focus on one. As Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron. The novelist Mary Shelley was his second wife suggested in his famous poem "Ozymandias "Ozymandias" is a sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley, published in 1818 (see 1818 in poetry). It is frequently anthologised and is probably Shelley's most famous short poem. It was written in competition with his friend Horace Smith, who wrote another sonnet entitled "Ozymandias" seen below" ("Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"), the purpose of monuments is very often to impress or awe. In English the word "monumental" is often used in reference to something of extraordinary size and power. The word comes from the Latin "monere," which means 'to remind' or 'to warn.'
Functional structures made notable by their age, size or historic significance can also be regarded as monuments. This can happen because of great age and size, as in the case of the Great Wall of China The Great Wall stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. The most comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has recently concluded that the entire Great Wall, with all of its branches, stretches for 8,851.8 km . This is made up of, or because an event of great import occurred there such as the village of Oradour-sur-Glane Oradour-sur-Glane is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department in the Limousin region in west-central France in France France is a founding member state of the European Union and is the largest one by area. France has been a major power for several centuries with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and in the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America; during the 19th and early 20th. Many countries use Ancient monument An ancient monument is an early historical structure or monument worthy of preservation and study due to archaeological or heritage interest. In the United Kingdom it is a legal term, differing from the American term National Monument in being far more numerous and always man-made. As scheduled monument, it is the normal designation for legally or similar terms for the official designation of protected structures or archeological sites An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record which may originally have been ordinary domestic houses or other buildings.
Monuments are also often designed to convey historical or political information. They can be used to reinforce the primacy of contemporary political power, such as the column of Trajan Trajan's Column is a monument in Rome, Italy, which commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It is probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near the Quirinal Hill, north of the Roman Forum. Completed in 113, or the numerous statues of Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years (1917–1924), as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a socialist economic system in the Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (help·info), tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, IPA [sɐˈjʊs sɐˈvʲeʦkʲɪx səʦɪ. They can be used to educate the populace about important events or figures from the past, such as in the renaming of the old General Post Office Building in New York City to the James A. Farley Building (James Farley Post Office), after former Postmaster General James Farley.
The social meanings of monuments are rarely fixed and certain and are frequently 'contested' by different social groups. As an example whilst the former East German socialist state may have seen the Berlin Wall as a means of 'protection' from the ideological impurity of the west, dissidents and others would often argue that it was symbolic of the inherent repression and paranoia of that state. This contention of meaning is a central theme of modern 'post processual' archaeological discourse.
Monuments have been created for thousands of years, and they are often the most durable and famous symbols of ancient civilizations. The Egyptian Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and it developed over the next three millennia. Its history Pyramids A pyramid is a structure where the outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces (at least four faces including the base). The square pyramid, with square base and four triangular outer surfaces, is a, the Greek Ancient Greece is the civilization belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. At the center of this time period is Classical Greece, which flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC, at first under Athenian Parthenon The Parthenon is a temple in the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their protector. Its construction began in 447 BC and was completed in 438 BC, although decorations of the Parthenon continued until 431 BC. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece,, and the Moai of Easter Island Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile annexed in 1888, Easter Island is widely famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai (pronounced /ˈmoʊ.aɪ/), created by the early Rapanui people. It is a World Heritage have become symbols of their civilizations. In more recent times, monumental structures such as the Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (originally called Liberty Enlightening the World ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886. The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman and Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower is an 1889 iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris that has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tallest building in Paris, it is the most-visited paid monument in the world; millions of people ascend it every year. Named for its designer, engineer have become iconic emblems of modern nation-states. The term monumentality relates to the symbolic status and physical presence of a monument.
Until recently, it was customary for archaeologists Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of past human societies, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data which they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes. Due to the fact that archaeology employs a wide range of different procedures, it can be to study large monuments and pay less attention to the everyday lives of the societies that created them. New ideas about what constitutes the archaeological record The archaeological record is a term used in archaeology to denote all archaeological evidence, including the physical remains of past human activities which archaeologists seek out and record in an attempt to analyze and reconstruct the past. In the main it denotes buried remains unearthed during excavation have revealed that certain legislative and theoretical approaches to the subject are too focused on earlier definitions of monuments. An example has been the United Kingdom's Scheduled Ancient Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The protection given to scheduled monuments is separate from the Town and Country Planning system. Scheduled Monuments are defined in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 laws.
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Types of monuments
- Buildings Buildings come in a wide amount of shapes and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for a wide number of factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, to land prices, ground conditions, specific uses and aesthetic reasons designed as iconic landmarks
- Church monuments A church monument is an architectural or sculptural memorial to a dead person or persons, located within a Christian church. It can take various forms, from a simple wall tablet to a large and elaborate structure which may include an effigy of the deceased person and other figures of familial or symbolic nature. It usually resides immediately to commemorate the dead, above or near their grave, often featuring an effigy The term is usually associated with full-length figures of a deceased person depicted in stone or wood on church monuments. These most often lie supine with hands together in prayer, but may also be recumbent, kneeling in prayer or even standing. Effigies may also be demi-figures and the term is occasionally used to refer to busts
- Cenotaphs A cenotaph is a tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of persons whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been interred elsewhere. The word derives from the Greek κενοτάφιον . Although the vast majority of cenotaphs are erected in honour of individuals, many of the best- and memorials A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains (and even entire parks) to commemorate the dead, usually war casualties - e.g. Vimy Ridge Memorial and India Gate The India Gate is the national monument of India. Situated in the heart of New Delhi, India Gate was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Originally known as All India War Memorial, it is a prominent landmark in Delhi and commemorates the 90,000 soldiers of the British Indian Army who lost their lives while fighting for the British Indian Empire, or
- Columns A column in structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces. Other compression members are often termed "columns" because of, often topped with a statue - e.g. Nelson's Column in London Nelson's Column is a monument in Trafalgar Square in honour of Admiral Nelson
- Grave stones A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a marker, normally carved from stone, placed over or next to the site of a burial in a cemetery or elsewhere constitute small monuments to a dead person
- Mausoleums A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the mausoleum. A Christian mausoleum sometimes includes and tombs A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. The word is used in a broad sense to encompass a number of such types of places of interment or, occasionally, burial, including: to inter the dead - e.g. the Great Pyramid The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the only one to survive substantially intact. It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops in Greek) and Taj Mahal Taj Mahal is considered to be the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Islamic and Indian architectural styles
- Monoliths A monolith is a geological feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are most often made of very hard and solid metamorphic or igneous rock erected for religious or commemorative purposes - e.g. Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about 3.2 kilometres west of Amesbury and 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones. It is at the centre of the most dense complex
- Mounds A mound is a general term for an artificial heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. The most common use is in reference to natural earthen formation such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. The term may also be applied to any rounded area of topographically higher elevation on any surface. Artificial erected to commemorate great leaders or events - e.g. Kościuszko Mound
- Obelisks An obelisk is a tall, narrow, four-sided, tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top. Ancient obelisks were often monolithic whereas most modern obelisks are made of several stones and can have interior spaces usually erected to commemorate great leaders - e.g. the Washington Monument The Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington. The monument, made of marble, granite, and sandstone, is both the world's tallest stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk, standing 555 feet 5⅛ inches .[n 1] There are, Monas
- Statues A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger. Its primary concern is representational of famous individuals or symbols - e.g. Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (originally called Liberty Enlightening the World ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886. The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman
- Temples A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out on the ground by the augur. Templa also or religious structures built for pilgrimage, ritual or commemorative purposes - e.g. Borobudur Borobudur, or Barabudur, is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist monument near Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. A main dome, located at the center of the top platform, is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, Kaaba The Kaaba is a cube-shaped building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the most sacred site in Islam. The building predates Islam, and, according to Islamic tradition, the first building at the site was built by Ibrahim. The building has a mosque built around it, the Masjid al-Haram. All Muslims around the world face the Kaaba during prayers, no
- Terminating vista, layout design for urban monuments
- Triumphal arches A Roman classical triumphal arch was a free-standing structure, quite separate from city gates or walls, but the form is often used in engaged arches as well. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crowned with a flat superstructure or attic on which a statue might be mounted or which bears, almost always to commemorate military successes - e.g. the Arc de Triomphe The Arc de Triomphe is a monument in Paris that stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, , at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. Officially, it is the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, as the smaller Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel exists nearby. The triumphal arch honours those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic
- Entire areas established as memorials to commemorate wartime atrocities or notably bloody battles - e.g. Oradour-sur-Glane or the battlefields at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Sekigahara and Borodino
- On occasion, monuments also refer to areas of special natural beauty
See also
- Memorial
- National memorial
- National monument (disambiguation)
- National Monuments Record the public archive of English Heritage, holds data on England's monuments
- Monumental sculpture
- Antiquities Act
References
External links
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Categories: Monuments and memorials | Garden features | Landscape architecture
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