Halicarnassus: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Greek City and Home to One of the Seven Wonders of the World

In 353 BCE, when King Mausolus of Halicarnassus passed away, his sister and queen Artemisia was inconsolable, but she found a way to honor him through finishing a project that they had started together during his life: the construction of a mausoleum that was so marvelous it would later be considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. She sent messengers across the ancient world to persuade the best sculptors and architects to come to southeast Anatolia to work on the king's memorial, employing only the finest craftsmen and sparing no expense in making the final resting place of Mausolus the finest tomb the world had ever seen. They labored for years, creating marvelous statues of the king's dynasty.

This great monumental tomb was completed in the middle of the fourth century BCE so that the name of Mausolus would be famous forever, as indeed it has been ever since. Like one of the other wonders, the Temple of Artemis, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was huge for its type of building, being about 150 feet tall and possessing 36 columns of marble on its four sides, nine to a side. Also like the Temple of Artemis, the site of the Mausoleum includes ruins that have been excavated in modern times. Using this, an accurate scale replica has been successfully constructed in Istanbul, Turkey, and pieces of the beautiful sculpture on the Mausoleum have been retrieved. Therefore, it is one of the few wonders that survived in some form and have directly inspired modern artists and architects.