Burton Mausoleum
Designed as an Arab tent-soon open to visitors
Sir Richard Burton and fellow explorer Lady Isabel Burton were celebrated and controversial travellers of the nineteenth century.
Richard Burton briefly attended Trinity College, Oxford, but was expelled in 1842. He joined the army of the British East India Company and served in India, where he immersed himself in local languages and cultures, mastering Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, and others. He married Isabel Arundell in 1861. the end of his life he had learned around 25–29 languages and dialects. In India he worked in surveying, intelligence, and even undertook undercover investigations, gaining deep knowledge of Eastern societies.1
Burton’s Journeys
Burton’s reputation rests on a series of bold, high-risk journeys:
1853 Hajj to Mecca and Medina: On leave from the East India Company and sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society, he disguised himself as a Pathan (Afghan Muslim) pilgrim named Mirza Abdullah. He became one of the first Europeans to reach the holy cities of Islam and complete the Hajj. His detailed, bestselling account, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah (1855–56), brought him instant fame.
1854–55: Harar and Somaliland: He became the first European to enter the forbidden walled Muslim city of Harar (in modern Ethiopia) without being executed. A follow-up expedition in Somaliland turned violent when his party was attacked; Burton survived a javelin wound that pierced his cheek and mouth.
1857–58 East African Expedition (with John Hanning Speke): Backed by the Royal Geographical Society, they traveled from Zanzibar into the African interior to find the source of the Nile. Despite severe illness (including malaria and temporary blindness), they became the first Europeans to reach Lake Tanganyika.
Later travels included climbing the Cameroons Mountains (1862), a diplomatic mission to the King of Dahomey in West Africa (1863), and rafting down Brazil’s Rio São Francisco (1867). He also held British consular posts in Fernando Póo (West Africa), Santos (Brazil), Damascus, and finally Trieste.
Writer and Translator
Burton wrote or translated more than 40 books on exploration, geography, and ethnography. His most famous translations include the first unexpurgated English version of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights, 16 volumes, 1885–88) and the Kama Sutra (1883), along with The Perfumed Garden. Some other books in footnote.2
Conflicting readings of Sir Richard Francis Burton
The essay, “Brow of a God, Jaw of a Devil”: Conflicting readings of Sir Richard Francis Burton” observes:
Richard Burton’s legacy is a daunting task. Invariably he is described as an explorer, scholar, linguist, writer, translator, military officer, diplomat, but also as racist, misogynist, and an agent of the colonial machine.
He has been called provocative, transgressive, inquisitive, as well as disdainful, impatient, and overbearing. This paints a personality that is grand and complicated; a larger-than-life character that attracts attention, both positive and negative. 3
Mausoleum was designed as an Arab tent.
The mausoleum of Sir Richard Burton and Lady Isabel Burton was designed as an Arab tent. It is a unique example of Victorian funerary architecture.
It is at the Catholic church of St Mary Magdalen in Mortlake, West London. The stone monument, with ruched exterior detail gives the impression of draped fabric. It is decorated with various Eastern and Christian motifs including a Star of Bethlehem, a Crucifix with Crown of Thorns at the base, and gilded Muslim crescents.
Inside are the coffins of Sir Richard Burton and Lady Isabel Burton, his wife, together with various objects including an altar, Middle Eastern lamps, coloured glass vessels and camel bells, which were fixed to a battery in order that they would tinkle when the tomb door was opened. The interior may be viewed from a plate-glass window (originally stained glass) at the back via a fixed iron step ladder. The tomb was erected by Lady Burton and she visited it frequently while waiting for her signal, sometimes sitting inside amongst the tinkling bells.4
Background on Constructing the Burton Mausoleum.
Restoration and Opening
Restoration work to the Burton Mausoleum began in July 2025.5 The inside of the Burton Mausoleum was described in detail with many images in the essay by Dr. Helen Brown on “Exploring inside the Burton Mausoleum.” (07/05/25)
The restored Burton Mausoleum will be open to visitors on April 25, 2026.
Sir Richard Burton. Britannica.
Other books included Goa and the Blue Mountains (1851); Falconry in the Valley of the Indus (1852); The Lake Regions of Central Equatorial Africa (1859); Abeokuta and the Cameroon Mountains (1863); The Nile Basin (1864); Letters From the Battlefields of Paraguay (1870); The Gold Mines of Midian (1878). For a complete list see Richard Francis Burton bibliography.
Marina Vitić. Brow of a God, Jaw of a Devil”: Conflicting readings of Sir Richard Francis Burton. Habitat & Heritage.
Conservation works to begin this summer to Victorian Explorer’s Tomb. Heritage Network. July 16, 2025.
Burton was a fascinating figure, and incredibly lucky to have not succumbed to any of the diseases that were unpreventable and untreatable and were endemic in the areas he visited and resided in during his eventful life.