Mausoleum of Mao Zedong

Brief Information

The Mausoleum of Mao Zedong stands in the central part of Tiananmen Square, south of the Monument to the People's Heroes: the memorial was placed not on the outskirts, but on the square's very state axis. It was built in 1976-1977 as the “Chairman Mao Memorial Hall,” with the Abraham Lincoln Memorial cited as its model. For this reason, the building reads not only as a tomb, but also as a hall of official memory, with an emphatically frontal entrance, an inscription, and a sequence of interior spaces.

As of 2022, it is one of five active tombs of former leaders of socialist countries. This fact changes the way one views its strict symmetry and ritual layout: what stands before the viewer is not simply a commemorative building, but a rare type of memorial in which the body of a political leader remains a central part of public space.

What to Notice First

The exterior is best read through the combination of scale and repeated details. The main building is almost square in plan: its length and width are listed as identical, 105.5 meters each. Around the perimeter stand 44 granite octagonal columns, each 17.5 meters high. This regular shell makes the memorial resemble a solemn hall even before one enters. Above the main entrance, white marble and golden Chinese characters immediately set the building's official tone.

Inside, the same principle continues through materials and central figures. In the North Hall there is a marble statue of Mao; behind it is the large engraving “Motherland,” and the glass ceiling is lit by 110 light sources. In the Visitors' Hall, the center is no longer a statue but the crystal coffin containing his remains; its base is made of black granite. One can compare the white marble of the entrance, the marble of the statue, the crystal, and the black granite: the materials separate the official image of the leader from the place of farewell to him.