This week we turn to the seaside city of Durban in KZN to learn more about one of its famous landmarks, the Durban Cenotaph.

The Durban Cenotaph is an eye catching and unusual monument located in Farewell Square, Durban. It is a memorial to fallen soldiers of World War I.

(A cenotaph is an empty tomb, or monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere.)

The granite cenotaph stands almost 36 feet high, and is decorated with glazed ceramic tiles which show two angels raising the soul of a dead soldier. This colourful decoration makes the monument quite unique when compared with WW1 memorials around the world. A wreath of green ceramic crowns the top of the monument. The words "Tell it to the generation following" appear just below, while a metal statue of a dead soldier lies stretched out on a plinth in front of the monument.

An interesting factoid is that the design was the result of a competition held in 1921, which was won by the Cape Town architectural firm of Eagle, Pilkington and McQueen. The ceramics were made in England by Harold and Phoebe Stabler of the Poole Pottery, and shipped to Durban for assembly: because this process took some time, the memorial was only unveiled in 1926.

 The entire monument is set in a small stone-walled garden. The entrance to the garden is guarded by a remarkable pair of large snarling Art Deco lions on high plinths.

The cenotaph was the object of a bombing attack in June 1981, but only a large granite basin behind the memorial was slightly damaged in this incident.

 

(Info source: Wikipedia; image source)