The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus

The Oft-Forgotten Wonder of the Ancient World

Apr 3, 2008

An Artist's Conception of the Mausoleum, Public Domain

One of the grandest tombs in all of history, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus was well deserved of its place as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus may very well be the most difficult to remember of any of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

It’s one of those wonders which has been more or less forgotten over the years. Halicarnassus, after all, is not a place that most people are likely to remember from studies of the ancient land known as Anatolia, which lies in modern day Turkey (which lies to the east of Greece and the seat of the Roman empire in Rome, so as a result, the Greek word for “East” is Anatolia - anatolia).

The Legacy of the Mausoleum

The word “mausoleum” today has become a generic word meaning a place where someone is buried – a tomb.

In the case of this ancient wonder, however, it referred to a specific person – Mausollos, satrap of the Persian empire who lived from 377-352 B.C. (give or take a year or two). In Mausollos one may find the inevitable etymology of the word Mausoleum.

The History

While most of the details regarding the life of Mausollos have by now been lost to history, at least his name will live on with no end in sight. It’s a lucky thing, too, because otherwise it would be even more difficult to remember anything about this period of history.

One of the reasons for the difficulty may be that many of the names from this period, even when written in English, can be remarkably difficult to remember or to pronounce.

Take the following little piece of history, for example: Mausollos took part in the 362 B.C. revolt against Artaxerxes Mnemon, king of Persia (which was when he first became a ruler and moved the capital of his kingdom to Halicarnasus). His father’s name was Hecotomnus, who was the successor to the previous satrap, Tissaphernes.

Mausollos planned to build a tomb for himself in the center of the city in order to show how rich he and his queen Artemisia were, but he died before he got a chance to actually construct it.

Like a good wife, though, Artemisia followed through with the plans after his death, employing some of the best architects and sculpters in the empire, including Satyrus, Pythis, Scopas, Leochares, Bryaxis and, of course, Timotheus. Artemisia herself died while the tomb was still in construction, but the devoted builders kept right on going, not stopping until they had finished the project, despite the fact that all of those who had vested interests in the project were dead.

The Grand Tomb

Construction of the tomb was finally completed in 350 B.C. and was apparently quite a sight to behold. It stood nearly 150 feet off the ground at its peak, looking something like a pyramid standing atop a giant stone platform, enclosed on all sides by a grand courtyard.

Included by artisans in the project were very beautiful stone sculptures and reliefs depicting various scenes, some from historical reality, others from popular mythology.

Today, the legacy of the mausoleum remains alive in many aspects of modern architecture. Grant’s Tomb in New York City, for example, finds its architectural ancestor in the Mausoleum, as does the famous city hall in Los Angeles.

The Mausoleum of Halicarnasus stood longer than most of the other wonders, surviving Alexander the Great’s conquering of Persia and subsequent attacks by pirates in 62 and 58 B.C.

What it could not survive fully intact, however, was a series of Earthquakes over time, which eventually weakened the structure to a point where it began to crumble to the ground. Today all that remains is a vague footprint and a few remnants here and there. Not much to celebrate, other than its rich architectural legacy.

Still, it was a beautiful piece of architecture, and comes accompanied with a decent history. Perhaps knowledge of this will help people to better remember the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.