Not-a-Tomb

Pyramids are NOT Tombs

Have you ever visited Grant’s Tomb in New York City? According the website funeralbasics.org it’s one of the 10 most famous tombs in the world.

We have no doubt that Grant’s Tomb really is a tomb. It’s a place where people can visit and pay their respects to an important person. We know there’s a dead body in there. We can walk right in through the large front door, located conveniently in the very middle of the front wall. Once inside the large, airy room we can walk around comfortably and think about the man entombed there.

Grant’s Tomb is number 9 on the list of 10 Most-Famous Tombs. Number 3 is the Taj Mahal, in our opinion the most beautiful building in the world. And there is no doubt that the Taj Mahal is indeed a tomb: Huge room, large front door in the front, two dead people inside. Check. The Pantheon in Paris is Number 8 on the list. LOTS of dead people in this one: Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Madam Curie and her husband, Louis Braille & Alexandre Dumas, and others. Definitely a tomb. Where we have a problem is the Number 1 on the list: the Great Pyramid of Giza.

We call ‘Bullshit!’

So ‘What is a Tomb?’ We absolutely must nail that down before we can reasonably say, “That looks like a tomb” or “That doesn’t look like a tomb, to me”  Having visited and studied many actual tombs around the world we think we have a pretty solid idea of what a tomb is. We’ve identified 7 characteristics common to most of the tombs we’ve visited. They are:

1. Contain a body
2. Have a large door
3. Contain a large room, or several, connected by hallways
4. Are highly decorated
5. Usually contain valuables
6. Are hidden from sight
7. Are mostly level