Satellite Images of Memorials, Tombs, and Mausoleums

These images are made possible by cutting-edge satellite imaging technology. By using the latest remote sensing technology, we are able to display these sites from around the world.

The satellite images below of the world’s most famous memorials, tombs, and mausoleums were captured by high-resolution commercial satellite sensors. These large and impressive structures were created for deceased leaders or another person (s) of importance. Most of these structures date back thousands of years, and many memorials, tombs, and mausoleum sites still stand today.

Great Pyramids of Giza, El Giza, Egypt

Giza Pyramids – QuickBird (0.65m)

The Giza Pyramids were constructed around 2500 BC as monumental tombs. The largest and oldest pyramid was originally over 480 feet high and is made of 5.7 million tons of limestone. It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for the fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops in Greek) and constructed over a 20 year period concluding around 2540 BC. The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years.

Taj Mahal, New Delhi, India

Taj Mahal – IKONOS (0.8m)

Located in the city of Agra in the State of Uttar Pradesh, the Taj Mahal is one of the most beautiful masterpieces of architecture in the world a style that combines elements of Persian, Turkish, Indian, and Islamic architectural styles. While the white domed marble mausoleum is the most familiar part of the monument, the Taj Mahal is actually an integrated complex of structures. Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife.

First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty – Terracotta Warriors and Horses, Xi’an, Shaanxi province, China

Xi’an, Shaanxi province, China – JAXA

Terracotta Warriors and Horses – QuickBird

The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Qin Shi Huang, 259 BC to 210 BC), who established the first unified dynasty in China in 221 BC, is the grey-green pyramid in the top image. The base of the pyramid is 375m in both east-west and north-south directions. East of the mausoleum, you can see the semi-cylindrical roof of No. 1 Pit of the Museum of Qin Terra-Cotta Warriors and Horses, where thousands of standing terra-cotta figures of life-sized soldiers and horses were excavated.

The Pantheon Mausoleum, Rome, Italy

Pantheon Mausoleum – GeoEye-1 (0.5m)

The Pantheon meaning “Every god” is a building in Rome, built by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in about 126 AD. A near-contemporary writer, Cassius Dio, speculates that the name comes from the statues of many gods placed around the building, or from the resemblance of the dome to the heavens. Since the French Revolution, when the church of Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, was deconsecrated and turned into a secular monument, the Panthéon, the generic term pantheon may be applied to any building in which illustrious dead are honored or buried.

St. Peter Basilica, Vatican City, Rome, Italy

St. Basilica Church – IKONOS (0.8m)

Old St. Peter’s Basilica was the fourth-century church begun by Emperor Constantine between 326 and 333 AD. This church had been built over the small shrine believed to mark the burial place of St. Peter. It contained a very large number of burials and memorials, including those of most of the popes from St. Peter to the 15th century.

Lenin’s Mausoleum, Red Square, Russia

Lenin’s Mausoleum – QuickBird

Lenin’s Mausoleum, also known as Lenin’s Tomb, situated in Red Square in Moscow, is the mausoleum that serves as the final resting place of Vladimir Lenin. His embalmed body has been on public display there since the year he died in 1924 (with rare exceptions in wartime). Aleksey Shchusev’s diminutive but monumental granite structure incorporates some elements from ancient mausoleums, such as the Step Pyramid and the Tomb of Cyrus the Great.

Lincoln’s Memorial, Washington DC, U.S.A.

Lincoln Memorial – GeoEye-1

American memorial was built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. The building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple and contains a large seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and inscriptions of two well-known speeches by Lincoln.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

Monticello House – GeoEye-1

Dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, an American Founding Father and the third president of the United States. The Monticello House a neoclassical building was designed by John Russell Pope. It was built by Philadelphia contractor Tyler Nichols. Construction began in 1939, the building was completed in 1943, and the bronze statue of Jefferson was added in 1947. When completed, the memorial occupied one of the last significant sites left in the city.

Washington Memorial, Washington DC, USA

Washington Monument – GeoEye-1

The Washington Monument is the most prominent structure in Washington, D.C., and one of the city’s early attractions. It was built in honor of George Washington, who led the country to independence and then became its first President. The Monument is shaped like an Egyptian obelisk, stands 555’ 5 1/8” tall, and offers views in excess of thirty miles. It was finished on December 6, 1884.

USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, O’ahu, Hawaii

USS Arizona – IKONOS

The resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors killed on the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, by Japanese imperial forces and commemorates the events of that day. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the island of O’ahu was the action that led to United States involvement in World War II.

Twin Towers Memorial, World Trade Center, Manhattan, New York

World Trade Center Memorial – IKONOS, GeoEye-1

Proposed Memorial completion around 2011 will be built to remember and honor the nearly three thousand people who died in the horrific attacks of February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001. The Memorial will consist of two massive pools set within the footprints of the Twin Towers with the largest manmade waterfalls in the country cascading down their sides. They will be a powerful reminder of the Twin Towers and of the unprecedented loss of life from an attack on our soil.

The names of the nearly 3,000 individuals who were killed in the September 11 attacks in New York City, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon, and the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing will be inscribed around the edges of the Memorial pools.

The Pentagon Memorial, Arlington, Virginia, USA

Pentagon Memorial – IKONOS

An outdoor memorial dedicated to the 184 people killed in the building and on American Airlines Flight 77 in the September 11, 2001 attacks (not counting the hijackers aboard the plane). The memorial opened to the public on September 11, 2008.