Napoleon's tomb

[RTA]

We've all seen pictures of Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb in Paris. He's in a pit; you look down there and there's his sarcophagus.
Now, I've heard that this layout is intentional and an architect's trick. That, for to see him, you have to bow your head or at least lower your eyes (because he's so great).
Has anyone heard this? Namely, that his tomb was placed so far below floor level in order to force visitors to assume a position of supplication?

[mr john]

I don't know about being 'supplicant' when viewing the remains of the Santa Anna of Europe, but I think we should all show reverence when looking at Napoleans bony parts.

[mangeorge]

They lost his bony part!
Peace,
mangeorge

[mr john]

Well I been looking all i can find so far is that napolean probably died of arsenic poisoning from the green dye in the wall paper .

[Nickrz]

I don't consider looking down on someone as a form of supplication, head bowed or not.

[RTA]

Regrettably you have totally failed to appreciate the (alleged) subtlety in the architecture that I have described.
It's not the "looking down on him" that is the trick. That is obvious. It's that you have to bow your head or at least drop your eyes - like a servant.

[mr john]

Do you know the name of the architect? I can't find anything on this. Only a picture of his grave on St Helen's(there is a volcano in the background I wonder what its name is?)
When thet moved the body a lot of admirers took locks of hair. Later they discovered arsenic in the hair. that led to a grreat conspiracy theory. But more recently they sampled the wallpaper.
Maybe so,Man, but they got Dillenger's AND they saved Hitler's brain.

[Nickrz]

Regrettably you have totally failed to appreciate the obvious. Looking down on someone of necessity involves bowing the head. The act of "looking down" is a more obvious indication of (alleged) superiority than is the "subtle" bowing of the head an act of supplication.

Either these architects had their heads up their asses or someone's pulling your leg.

[mr john]

As far as that goes, when the mouners file past for a last look at the dear departed....
And , I may be wrong(gasp), but I don't think there is anybody entombed up in the air.
PS Unless you really wanta hurt um don't neverever pull nobody's leg when they got there head up there.

[RTA]

I doubt that the architects actually "had their heads up their asses", so we can discount one of the theories offered so graciously. And I am in fact ASKING whether someone might be pulling my leg, or whether this is a true story.

Those who know anything at all about architecture know that it (like any other art) often has many subtle, whimsical, or sly elements. If architecture was all about being "obvious", we'd all live in neo-Bauhaus cubes.

[According to Pliny]

Hey! Leave my neo-Bauhaus cube out of it!

BTW - The volcano on St. Helena is Diana's Peak, elv. 2,700 ft.

[mangeorge]

"The act of "looking down" is a more obvious indication of (alleged) superiority than is the "subtle" bowing of the head an act of supplication."
---Nickrz
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Not necessarily, Nick. It was pretty common in many cultures for the exhalted one to recline while the supplicants stood around with heads bowed and eyes lowered.
Peace,
mangeorge