I have lying, over me in Halicarnassus, a gigantic monument
such as no other dead person has, adorned in the finest way with statues
of horses and men carved most realistically from the best quality marble..

King Maussollos 

in Lucian's "Dialogues of the Dead" 







Similar to the Great Pyramid, we are now visiting the burial place of an ancient king. 
Yet the Mausoleum is different - so different from the Pyramid that it earned its reputation
- and a spot within the list - for other reasons. Geographically, it is
closer to theTemple of Artemis... And it was the beauty of the tomb rather 
than its size that fascinated its visitors for years. 




Location



In the city of Bodrum (f.k.a. Halicarnassus) on the Aegean Sea, in south-west Turkey

History
When the Persians expanded their ancient kingdom to include Mesopotamia, 
Northern India, Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor, the king could not control 
his vast empirewithout the help of local governors or rulers -- the Satraps. 
Like many other provinces, the kingdom of Caria in the western part of Asia Minor
(Turkey) was so far from the Persian capital that it was practically autonomous.
From 377 to 353 BC, king Mausollos of Caria reigned and moved his capital
to Halicarnassus. Nothing is exciting about Maussollos life except the
construction of his tomb. The project was conceived by his wife and sister
Artemisia, and the construction might have started during the king's lifetime.
The Mausoleum was completed around 350 BC, three years after Maussollos
death, and one year after Artemisia's.

For 16 centuries, the Mausoleum remained in good condition until an
earthquake caused some damage to the roof and colonnade. In the early fifteenth
century, the Knights of St John of Malta invaded the region and built a massive 
crusader castle. 
When they decided to fortify it in 1494, they used the stones of the Mausoleum. By 1522,
almost every block of the Mausoleum had been disassembled and used for construction.

Today, the massive castle still stands in Bodrum, and the polished stone and marble blocks
of the Mausoleum can be spotted within the walls of the structure. Some
of the sculptures survived and are today on display at the British
Museum in London. These include fragment of statues and many slabs
of the frieze showing the battle between the Greeks and the Amazons. At
the site of the Mausoleum itself, only the foundation remains of the once
magnificent Wonder. 




Description
The structure was rectangular in plan, with base dimensions of about
40 m (120 ft) by 30 m (100 ft). Overlying the foundation was a stepped
podium which sides were decorated with statues. The burial chamber and
the sarcophagus of white alabaster decorated with gold were located on
the podium and surrounded by Ionic columns. The colonnade supported a pyramid
roof which was in turn decorated with statues. A statue of a chariot pulled
by four horses adorned the top of the tomb.

The total height of the Mausoleum was 45 m (140 ft). This is broken
down into 20 m (60 ft) for the stepped podium, 12 m (38 ft) for the colonnade,
7 m (22 ft) for the pyramid, and 6 m (20 ft) for the chariot statue at the top. 

The beauty of the Mausoleum is not only in the structure itself, but
in the decorations and statues that adorned the outside at different levels
on the podium and the roof. These were tens of life-size as well as under
and over life-size free-standing statues of people, lions, horses, and
other animals. The statues were carved by four Greek sculptors: Bryaxis,
Leochares, Scopas, and Timotheus, each responsible for one side. 

Since the nineteenth century, archeological excavations have been undertaken
at the Mausoleum site. These excavations together with detailed descriptions
by ancient historians give us a fairly good idea about the shape and appearance
of the Mausoleum. A modern reconstruction of the shorter side of the Mausoleum 
illustrates the lavish nature of the art and architecture of the building... 
a building which gave its name to all large tombs today -- mausoleums.