STATUES OF GLOBAL LEADERS

Simón Bolívar, Eleftherios Venizelos, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Kahlil Gibran may not be household names for most Americans. But to citizens of the countries these men came from, they’re every bit as important as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.

In fact, the nation’s capital—famous for its Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and Kennedy Center—is also home to dozens of statues honoring non-American heroes.

Some, like Marquis de Lafayette of France, Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben of Germany and Thaddeus Kosciuszko of Poland, were generals who helped the fledgling United States defeat the British in the American Revolutionary War. Others, such as Bulgaria’s Vasil Levski, Chile’s Bernardo O’Higgins, Mexico’s Benito Juárez and Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar, helped secure independence for their own countries.

And still others, such as India’s beloved Mahatma Gandhi, Britain’s Sir Winston Churchill and South African anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, are considered 20th-century heroes for their determination and leadership in the face of overwhelming odds.

In this directory, we have photographed 21 statues and included them throughout the directory. We encourage you to find them all—and visit them.

If we have missed any important statues, please send an email to news@washdiplomat.com, put “STATUES” in the subject line, and we will do our best to include them in our next edition. 