Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus was the monumental tomb of Mausolus, satrap of Caria, erected at Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum, Turkey) around 353–350 BCE by his widow and sister Artemisia II. Ranked among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it was celebrated in antiquity for the exceptional quality of its sculptural decoration by four leading Greek sculptors — Bryaxis, Leochares, Scopas, and Timotheus — and gave the word mausoleum to virtually every European language.
At a glance
- Type
- Ancient monumental tomb; one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (destroyed)
- Period
- Constructed c. 353–350 BCE; damaged by earthquake(s), probably 12th–15th centuries CE; stones quarried by Knights Hospitaller for Bodrum Castle after 1404
- Style
- Hellenistic; hybrid Greek-Lycian-Egyptian architectural form on a high podium with Ionic colonnade and stepped pyramid roof
- Location
- Bodrum (ancient Halicarnassus), Muğla Province, southwestern Turkey
- Coordinates
- 37.0377° N, 27.4241° E
Overview
The Mausoleum stood in the heart of Halicarnassus, the capital of the satrapy of Caria under Persian dominion, and was designed to project the prestige of Mausolus and the hybrid Hellenised-Persian culture of his court. Ancient descriptions — preserved especially in Pliny the Elder's Natural History — record a structure approximately 45 metres tall, composed of a high podium, a peristyle of 36 Ionic columns, and a stepped pyramid crowned by a four-horse chariot group. The four sides were assigned to four different sculptors, making the building a showcase of the finest Greek carving of the mid-4th century BCE.
History
Mausolus began planning his tomb during his own lifetime, relocating the capital of Caria from Mylasa to Halicarnassus and commissioning a grand urban rebuilding programme that included the mausoleum as its centrepiece. He died in 353 BCE before the structure was complete; Artemisia, who shared rule and married her brother according to Carian custom, oversaw its completion before her own death in 351 BCE, with work continuing under later Hecatomnid rulers. The building survived intact into the medieval period but was progressively demolished by the Knights Hospitaller after 1404 for building material for the Castle of St. Peter (Bodrum Castle), which still stands today. English archaeologist Charles Newton excavated the site in 1856–1857, recovering sculptural fragments now in the British Museum.
What you see
The original mausoleum is entirely gone, but the archaeological site in central Bodrum preserves its foundations, the shaft of a staircase, and scattered architectural fragments. An on-site museum displays a scale model of the reconstructed mausoleum and some surviving carved stones. The most important sculptures — including large marble figures of Mausolus and Artemisia, a frieze depicting the Battle of the Amazons (Amazonomachy), and slab friezes of centauromachy — are held in the British Museum in London. Fragments are also in the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology, housed within Bodrum Castle itself.
Cultural significance
The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus had an outsized impact on the history of commemorative architecture: it gave the English word mausoleum (and equivalents across European languages) to any large funerary monument, and its distinctive form — tall podium, columnar hall, pyramidal roof — was imitated in Roman and early Christian tomb architecture. Its sculptural programme, involving four of the greatest Greek sculptors working simultaneously, represented a pinnacle of 4th-century BCE artistic ambition. The monument is also significant as an expression of the cultural fusion between Greek artistic traditions and non-Greek political elites in the Achaemenid Persian world.
Practical information
- Archaeological site
- Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Turgut Reis Caddesi, Bodrum 48400, Muğla, Turkey — open daily; check Turkish Ministry of Culture website for current hours and admission fees
- British Museum sculptures
- Room 21, British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG — free entry
- Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology
- Bodrum Castle, Bodrum — check official website for hours
Getting there
Bodrum is served by Milas-Bodrum Airport (BJV), with direct flights from Istanbul and several European cities during the tourist season. The archaeological site is located in central Bodrum town, within easy walking distance of the harbour and Bodrum Castle. Bodrum is also reachable by long-distance bus from Izmir (approx. 3 hours) and Ankara (approx. 10 hours), and by ferry from the Greek island of Kos.