A monument erected in honor of a dead person whose remains lie elsewhere.
[French cénotaphe, from Old French, from Latin cenotaphium, from Greek kenotaphion : kenos, empty + taphos, tomb.]
cenotaphic cen'o·taph'ic adj.
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A monument erected in honor of a dead person whose remains lie elsewhere.
[French cénotaphe, from Old French, from Latin cenotaphium, from Greek kenotaphion : kenos, empty + taphos, tomb.]
cenotaphic cen'o·taph'ic adj.For more information on cenotaph, visit Britannica.com.
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 that has since been interred elsewhere. The word
derives from the Greek κενοτάϕιον (kenos, one meaning being "empty", and
taphos, "tomb"). Although the vast majority of cenotaphs are erected in honour of individuals, many of the best-known
cenotaphs are instead dedicated to the memories of groups of individuals, such as the war dead of one country or empire.
Probably the best-known cenotaph in the modern world is the one that stands in Whitehall, London. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, who conceived of the idea from the name of a structure in Gertude Jekyll's garden, and constructed from Portland stone between 1919-1920 by Holland, Hannen & Cubitts. It replaced Lutyen's identical wood and plaster cenotaph erected in 1919 for the Allied Victory Parade commissioned by David Lloyd George, and is a Grade I listed building. It is undecorated save for a carved wreath on each end and the words "The Glorious Dead", chosen by Rudyard Kipling.
The sides of the Cenotaph are not parallel, but meet at a point 900 feet above the ground. Similarly, the horizontal surfaces are also actually the surfaces of a sphere who centre is 900 feet below ground.
It is flanked on each side by various flags of the United Kingdom which Lutyens had wanted to be carved in stone. Although Lutyens was overruled and cloth flags were used, his later Rochdale cenotaph had stone flags. In the years following 1919, the Cenotaph displayed a Union Flag, a White Ensign and a Red Ensign on one side and a Union Flag, a White Ensign and a Blue Ensign on the other side. On 1 April 1943, a RAF Ensign was substituted for the White Ensign on the west side of the monument. Presently, flags displayed represent the Royal Navy, the British Army, the Royal Air Force and the Merchant Navy.
The Cenotaph is the site of the annual national service of remembrance held at 11 a.m. on Remembrance Sunday, the closest Sunday to the 11th November (Armistice Day). Uniformed service personnel (excluding fire and ambulance personnel) always salute the Cenotaph as they pass. It was, for example, very noticeably the only salute made by the Royal Horse Artillery driver of Diana, Princess of Wales's funeral carriage during the procession (on this occasion he did not salute even the Queen). There are no horizontals or verticals on the monument - the horizontals are in fact slightly curved and the verticals, a form of Entasis meet at a point about 1000 feet (304.8 meters) above the ground. The joints of the masonry are all within one fourteenth of an inch (1.8 millimetres).
Cenotaphs have been erected in many countries around the world since ancient times. It was a common tradition in the ancient world, with many examples built in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and across in Northern Europe (in the shape of Neolithic barrows). The practice is still continued around the world. Lutyens' cenotaph influenced the design of many other war memorials in Britain and the British sectors of the Western Front. The John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial in Dallas is often described as a cenotaph. The Cenotaph in Central, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong and the Cenotaph in Singapore were erected in memorial of the war dead in World War I. A cenotaph in Yale University's Hewitt Quad (or Beinecke Plaza) honours the Men of Yale who died in battle.
The cenotaph concept is by no means confined to Europe. One of the most famous non-European examples is the concrete Memorial Cenotaph at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, designed by Kenzo Tange to commemorate the 200,000 victims of the August 1945 atomic bomb attack.
The Victory Square Cenotaph, located in Victory Square in Vancouver, BC, Canada was built as a memorial to the Canadian soldiers who died in World War I.
The Voortrekker Monument stands in Pretoria, South Africa. The two main points of interest in the building are the Historical Frieze and the Cenotaph Hall. The unique marble Historical Frieze is an intrinsic part of the design of the monument and is situated in the Hall of Heroes. The focus point of the monument is the cenotaph. On top of the Hall of Heroes is a dome from where one can view the interior of the monument. It is through an opening in this dome that the sun shines at twelve o'clock on December 16 each year onto the middle of the cenotaph and the words 'Ons vir Jou, Suid-Afrika' or Afrikaans for 'We for Thee, South Africa'. The ray of sunshine symbolises God's blessing on the lives and endeavours of the Voortrekkers. 16 December was chosen as it the date in 1838 that the Battle of Blood River was fought.
The Church of Santa Engrácia, in Lisbon, Portugal, turned into a National Pantheon since 1966, holds six cenotaphs, namely to Luís de Camões, Pedro Álvares Cabral, Afonso de Albuquerque, Nuno Álvares Pereira, Vasco da Gama and Henry the Navigator.
In India, cenotaphs are a basic element of Hindu architecture borrowed from Islam. They are termed chhatris, meaning canopy, and are found throughout the northwestern region of Rajasthan. In the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan, chhatris are built on the cremation sites of wealthy or distinguished individuals. Chhatris in Shekhawati may consist of a simple structure of one dome raised by four pillars to a building containing many domes and a basement with several rooms. In some places, the interior of the chhatris is painted in the same manner as the Havelis.
Some of the best-known chhatris in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan are located at the following cities and towns:
Many other chhatris exist in other parts of Rajasthan. Their locations include:
The region of Madhya Pradesh is the site of several other notable chhatris:
Although most notable cenotaphs commemorate notable individuals buried elsewhere, many cenotaphs pay tribute to people whose remains have never been located. One of the most striking cenotaphs to be found in Arlington National Cemetery is that of RMS Titanic victim Major Archibald Butt, aide to President William Taft, whose body was not recovered after the sinking.
Cenotaphs have also been the subject of a number of famous illustrations, notably:
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Nederlands (Dutch)
cenotaaf, monument voor gevallenen in wereldoorlogen (Brits)
Français (French)
n. - cénotaphe
Deutsch (German)
n. - Zenotaph, Ehrengrabmal
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - κενοτάφιο, μαυσωλείο
Português (Portuguese)
n. - cenotáfio (m)
Español (Spanish)
n. - cenotafio
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - minnesgravvård, tom grav
中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
纪念碑, 衣冠冢
中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 紀念碑, 衣冠塚
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) نصب تذكاري, مقبرة الجندي المجهول
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - מצבת-זיכרון, יד
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![]() | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more | |
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![]() | Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more | |
![]() | Obscure Words. © 2008 by Michael A. Fischer http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd. Read more | |
![]() | Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cenotaph". Read more | |
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