Hannibal’s Mausoleum is a monumental stone belonging to Hannibal, who we know as the commander who grew up with the ambition to be victorious over the Romans and used elephants.
To enter Hannibal’s Mausoleum, located inside the Tübitak campus in Gebze, you have to give your ID card to the guard at the gate. The cemetery, which you can reach in the half an hour allotted to you, is surrounded by greenery and flowers.
Who is Hannibal?
Hannibal, who was different from other commanders in terms of strategic intelligence in wars, was a Carthaginian (Tunisian) commander who lived between 247 – 182 BC. Raised with the idea of destroying Rome, Hannibal crossed the Alps and attacked the Romans using elephants.
Hannibal, who had won several victories against Rome, died in 183 BC in Libyssa, the old name of Gebze, in the territory of Bithynia, where Kocaeli is located today, after learning that the King of Bithynia would hand himself over to the Romans in the following years.
Either we will find a new road or we will make a new road. – Hannibal
In 1934, Atatürk, who had studied the war tactics of Hannibal of Carthage at the military academy, insisted that his grave be found and asked for a monument to be erected.
Although this request could not be fulfilled while Atatürk was still alive, his tomb could not be found, but the monument was erected on this 900 square meter area in 1981.
Made of pudding stone from Hereke, Kocaeli, the Hannibal Monument weighs 25 tons. In the center of the stone is a portrait of Hannibal by sculptor Nejat Özatay.
The inscriptions around the monument in Turkish, English, German, French, Italian, German, French and Italian provide some basic information about Hannibal.
