A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central Asia and Eastern, Southeast, Western and Northern Europe during the 3rd millennium BC.
Sarmatian Kurgan, 4th century BC, Fillipovka, South Urals, Russia. A dig led by Russian Academy of Sciences Archeology Institute Prof. L. Yablonsky excavated this kurgan in 2006. It is the first kurgan known to have been completely destroyed and then rebuilt to its original appearance.
Inside view of the Thracian mound tomb at Sveshtari, Bulgaria
Coloured lithograph by Carlo Bossoli (London, 1856) of the so-called "Tomb of Mithridates", kurgan near Kerch
Memorial of the Battle of Varna, which took place on 10 November 1444 near Varna, Bulgaria. The facade of the mausoleum is built into the side of an ancient Thracian tomb.
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or kurgans, and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built for various purposes, may also originally have been a tumulus.
Tomb of King Alyattes at Bin Tepe in Lydia, modern Turkey, built c. 560 BC. It is one of the largest tumuli ever built, with a diameter of 360 meters and a height of 61 meters.
The Royal Mounds of Gamla Uppsala in Sweden from the 5th and 6th centuries. Originally, the site had 2,000 to 3,000 tumuli, but due to quarrying and agriculture only 250 remain.
La Cambe German war cemetery
One of the Hallstatt culture–era tumuli in the Sulm valley necropolis
