Talk:Monument

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"A monument is a structure built for commemorative or symbolic reasons rather than for any functional use."

I must differ with what appears to be an incomplete and somewhat misleading definition.

1. "A commemorative or symbolic reason" is a functional use. Monuments often provide overt written, graphic and/or three-dimensional historical information, useful to reinforce the primacy of contemporary political power(the column of Trajan). They also educate the populace in more benign ways. 2. The "function" of munuments can include protection, as in city gates, or orientation as in town "Welcome" signs. 3. The "function" of monuments in Urban Design can include separation of public spaces into different uses. A larger scale example is, in fact, the Washington Monument, whose location (and vertical geometry, though not physical detail) was conceived to help organize public space in the Capital City before it was ever connected with George Washington. 4. Obelisks were originally built by the ancient Egyptians in pairs, to demark a sequence in public space. 5. Finally, a "monument" is also a surveying marker that denotes a property corner, a milestone in a road or an agreed-upon vertical datum used to measure the relative elevation of land.

Thanks for listening. Your website is great. John jrca@aol.com

[edit] Buildings

I'm not sure about the two pictures on this article (Taj Mahal and Eiffel Tower). Those are buildings, not really monuments. --JW1805 02:44, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

Read the 1st sentence of the article: Monuments are usually created for the dual function of commemorating an important event or person while also creating an artistic object that will improve the appearance of a city or location. The Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal do fill that criteria. I think you should have discussed the matter before actually replacing the images. --Deepak|वार्ता 03:43, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

• Sorry, I was Being Bold. It's just that usually, in everyday speech, when you hear "monument", you don't really think of buildings. For example, I'm not sure that the Empire State Building is a "monument", even though the article says so. I would agree that the Taj Mahal is a monument, since it does commemorate a person. But, I'm not sure what the Eiffel Tower is a monument to. --JW1805 05:11, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

A monument is structure which commemorates a person or an important event. As far as I know, The Eiffel Tower commemorates the French revolution, an important event in French history. Also its an artistic object and 'the' landmark in Paris. But yeah, I think Eiffel Tower is regarded more of a landmark than a monument. The same cant be said about Arc de Triomphe though. --Deepak|वार्ता 16:20, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

The Eiffel Tower is a monument. Ask any French person(I did and got nothing but "Yes, it is a monument.")--Mac Simms 18:58, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Somnath Temple : Monument of Caste based system in Indian subcontinent.

Somnath Temple in India was distroyed for several times and constructed by Democratic and Republic country India. Founding fathers of Constitution of India (1950) was in blind faith that India will be Democratic and Republic within ten years. In India after 55 years entire press and media is discussing about reservation policy for backword class and caste system is prevailing and there is no change in caste system for last 3000 years. All most all the Prime Ministes and Constituion Head The President of India visit this monument and greets the citizen on evey occasion of religion day (yearly more than 24 such days). I have put Somnath temple as the monument of caste system on Article Monument. vkvora 04:18, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Gallery?

There are a lot of pictures of towers in this article (I admit it, I just added another one myself) and I think that there are more pictures that deserve to be placed in the article. Maybe we could create a 6- or 9- image gallery at the bottom of the page? I've never done it, but if no one has any objections, I'll learn and do it myself. Just a thought, zappa.jake (talk) 05:13, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

My preference in these cases is to create a link to a gallery at Commons, rather than to have one in the article itself. There are millions of monuments out there, and thousands of very notable ones, and a gallery could quickly overwhelm this article. - SimonP 13:38, 24 June 2006 (UTC)