Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

Historical Site

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World — the very word "mausoleum" comes from King Mausolus, honoured by this Bodrum monument.

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was a monumental tomb built in the 4th century BC for Mausolus, the Persian satrap of Caria, by his sister-wife Artemisia II, and it is counted among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The very word "mausoleum", used across the world today for any grand tomb, derives directly from King Mausolus himself — meaning every monumental tomb on earth owes its name to this single structure in Bodrum.

It was designed by two of the most celebrated Greek architects of the age, Pythius and Satyros. Rising roughly 45 metres, the monument was composed in three tiers: a tall podium at the base, a colonnade of 36 Ionic columns in the middle, and a stepped pyramidal roof of 24 steps at the top. Crowning it all stood a colossal marble quadriga — a four-horse chariot bearing statues of Mausolus and Artemisia. The four greatest sculptors of the era — Scopas, Bryaxis, Timotheus and Leochares — each decorated one side of the tomb with independent relief friezes.

The Mausoleum survived largely intact for centuries before being toppled by a series of medieval earthquakes. In the 15th century the Knights of St John dismantled the dressed stone and marble of the ruin to build the nearby Bodrum Castle — which is why some of the Mausoleum's original blocks can still be seen in the castle walls today. The finest surviving relief slabs were carried to the British Museum in London after the 1857 excavations, where they are displayed in the "Halicarnassus Room".

The site visited today preserves the foundations, drainage channels, the stairway descending to the burial chamber, column drums and architectural blocks, laid out as an open-air museum. Set in the very heart of Bodrum, within walking distance of our hotel, it offers the rare chance to trace, step by step, the footprint of one of the most magnificent buildings ever raised — and to touch a legendary page of history.