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What was it?
The same as the Great Pyramid, we are now visiting the burial place of an ancient king. Yet the Mausoleum is different. It was the beauty of the tomb rather than its size that fascinated its visitors for years.
Location
In the city of Bodrum (which used to be called Halicarnassus) on the Aegean Sea, in south-west Turkey.
History
The huge Persian empire had many provinces with their own rulers. King Mausollos of Caria reigned and had his capital in Halicarnassus. Nothing is exciting about Maussollos' life except the construction of his tomb. The project was started by his wife and sister Artemisia, and the building may have begun 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 pulled down and used for construction.
Today, the massive castle still stands in Bodrum, and the polished stone and marble blocks of the Mausoleum can be seen 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 a base of about 40 m by 30 m. Overlying the foundation was a stepped podium which had sides decorated with statues. The burial chamber and the sarcophagus of white alabaster decorated with gold stood on the podium and were surrounded by Ionic columns. The colonnade held up a pyramid roof which was in turn decorated with statues. A statue of a chariot pulled by four horses stood on the top of the tomb.
The total height of the Mausoleum was 45 m.The beauty of the Mausoleum was not only in the structure itself, but in the decorations and statues on the podium and the roof. These were hundreds of huge statues of people, lions, horses, and other animals.