Mausolus died in 353 B.C. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was a large burial structure created for him by his sister-wife, Artemisia. (The Carian rulers had a custom of marrying their sisters.) Artemisia spared no expense in finding the best artisans to work on the tomb. According to the Museum of Unnatural Mystery, Satyros and Pytheos designed the overall shape, while Bryaxis, Leochares, Timotheus, and Scopas of Paros all took one side of the square design to decorate. Scopas of Paros was also responsible for working on the Temple of Artemis.

As with other large projects, there were many different craftsmen and workmen involved. The Mausoleum ultimately included a mix of Lycian, Greek, and Egyptian styles. 

The Mausoleum was constructed on a hill overlooking Halicarnassus; it is in an enclosed courtyard on a platform. A staircase decked with stone lions led up to the platform. Made of bricks and marble, the square structure tapered at one-third of its 140-foot height before shifting into 36 columns that rose for another one-third of the height. The roof made up the rest of the structure. The roof was a pyramid with 24 stepped levels. Statues liberally covered the courtyard and the Mausoleum, including those showing action scenes from Greek history. The very top included a sculpture of Artemisia and Mausolus being pulled in a chariot by four horses, done by Pytheos. When Artemisia died two years after her husband, the tomb was unfinished, but both of them were eventually buried there.

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus withstood the effects of war and time for centuries. The tomb was undamaged, for example, when Alexander the Great attacked the city in 334 B.C., just a few years after it was finished. It was also unharmed after pirates attacked the area in 62 and 58 B.C.

The Mausoleum stood above the city of Halicarnassus, which eventually came to be called Bodrum, in Turkey, for 17 centuries. In all that time, it didn’t undergo any sort of serious damage. However, earthquakes in the 13th century finally shattered the columns, writes the Museum of Unnatural Mysteries. The earthquakes also sent the Mausoleum’s stone chariot crashing to the ground. Many of the statues and other stones were scattered around the area. By 1404, only the base of the tomb was recognizable, but even that was in disrepair. Looters quickly came to the area, and seeing a broken monument, began taking the stone for themselves.

In 1844, Stratford Canning, the British ambassador to Istanbul at the time, asked the Ottoman Empire for permission to take sculptures from the Mausoleum back to the British Museum. This was allowed. In 1846, archeologist Charles Thomas Newton further studied the remains of the ruins. He started to search for the Mausoleum by studying Pliny the Elder to find the approximate location of the tomb. Newton dug tunnels to further investigate the nearby land, and eventually was able to discover a staircase, walls, and three corners of the foundation of the Mausoleum, writes Bodrum Pages.

Now that he knew the tomb’s location, Newton bought the plot of land. He excavated the site and found sections of sculpture reliefs, portions of the roof, and the broken stone chariot wheel that had fallen centuries before. It was seven feet in diameter, according to Bodrum Pages. Newton also found the statues of Artemisia and Mausolus that had stood on the roof. They were transported to the British Museum, and now stand in the aptly-named Mausoleum Room. Newton described the excursion in his work “Travels and Discoveries in the Levant.”

From 1966 to 1977, Kristian Jeppesen of the University of Southern Denmark excavated the site. The team discovered a piece of a frieze that escaped Newton, and created a precise plan of the area. According to the University of Southern Denmark, the team used physical evidence plus the descriptions of ancient authors to create a reconstruction of the tomb.

A calcite jar, almost 30cm high, was discovered in the Mausoleum’s ruins. Inscribed with the name Xerxes, it now resides in the British Museum. It was probably made in Egypt and contains translations in Egyptian, Babylonian, Elamite, and Old Persian, writes Livius.

The Achaemenid king Xerxes, who ruled from 486 to 465 B.C. was the only one who could have given this to its probable recipient, Queen Artemisia I, due to the specificity of the royal signature. The historian Herodotus didn’t mention the king’s visit to Halicarnassus, but it likely occurred for the gift to have ended up in the tomb centuries later. The gift likely passed through the Carian royal line and was given as a funeral gift to Mausolus, which is how it ended up in the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. It is an interesting look into seeing just how connected all these rulers and nations were, as it traveled through and touched Persia, Egypt, and Caria.

The city of Bodrum, formerly the great trading city of Halicarnassus, is the site of the Mausoleum. The main street of Halicarnassus when the Mausoleum was built is still the main street of Bodrum today, according to the University of Southern Denmark.

Bodrum is a tourist destination for several reasons, including its history and beaches. Known as the “land of eternal blue,” Bodrum’s bay is where the Mediterranean Sea and the Aegean Sea meet. The remains of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and Bodrum Castle remain popular attractions along with Bodrum’s several beaches due to its status as a lovely coastal city, writes Bodrum Travel Guide. Bodrum is also known for having an underwater archeology museum. The city has several boat yards with traditionally-built yachts whose methods go back centuries.

The name “Bodrum” comes from another of the city’s names, “Petronium,” which it acquired after the Knights of St. John took over the city in the 15th century.