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:
- Burial vaults – stone or
brick-lined underground spaces for interment (rather than burial), originally vaulted, often privately owned for
specific family groups; usually beneath a religious building such
as a church or in a churchyard or cemetery
- Church monuments – within a
church (or tomb-style chests in a churchyard) may be places of
interment, but this is unusual; they more commonly stand over the
grave or burial vault rather than
containing the actual body and are therefore not tombs
- Crypts – often, though not always, for
interment; similar to burial vaults but usually for more general
public interment
- Hypogeum tombs - stone-built
underground structures for interment, such as the tombs of ancient Egypt
- Martyria - Mausolea for the remains of
martyrs, such as San Pietro in Montorio

- Mausolea (including ancient pyramids in some
countries) – external free-standing structures, above ground,
acting as both monument and place of interment, usually for
individuals or family group
- Megalithic tombs (including
Chamber tombs) – prehistoric places of
interment, often for large communities, constructed of large stones
and originally covered with an earthen mound
- Sarcophagi – stone containers for
bodies or coffins, often decorated and
perhaps part of a monument; these may stand within religious
buildings or greater tombs or mausolea
- Sepulchres – cavernous rock-cut spaces
for interment, generally in the Jewish or
Christian faiths
- Architectural shrines – in Christianity, an architectural shrine above a
saint's first place
of burial, as opposed to a similar shrine on which stands a
reliquary or feretory into which the saint's remains have been
transferred
- Other forms of archaeological 'tombs' such as ship burials
As indicated, tombs are generally located in or under religious
buildings, such as churches, or in cemeteries or churchyards.
However, they may also be found in
catacombs, on private land or, in the case of
early or pre-historic tombs, in what is today open landscape.
The tomb
of Emperor
Nintoku
(the 16th emperor of Japan
) is the
largest in the world by area. However, the Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt
is the
largest by volume.
See also

The Pyramid tomb of Khufu