Gaspard Monge's mausoleum

About

Gaspard Monge, which remains are deposited in the burying ground in Père Lachaise Cemetery, at Paris, in a magnificent mausoleum, was professor of geometry in the École polytechnique at Paris, and with Denon associated Napoleon Bonaparte on his memory expedition to Egypt; one to make drawing of the architectural antiquities and sculpture, and the other the geographic lines of that ancient country. He returned to Paris, where assisted Denon in the publication of his antiquities. At his release the pupils of the Polytechnic School erected this mausoleum to his memory, as a testimony of their esteem, after a design made by his friend, Monsieur Denon. The mausoleum is of Egyptian architecture, with which Denon had become familiarly acquired.

There is a bust of Monge placed on a terminal pedestal underneath a canopy in the upper compartment, which canopy is open in front and in the back. In the cavetto cornice is an Egyptian winged globe, entwined with snakes, automatic of time and eternity; and on the face below is engraved the following line: —

GASPARD MONGE. On each side of the upper compartment is inscribed the following memento mori: