The Mausoleum in Halicarnassus is a wonderful monument of ancient Greek architectural art, which went down in the history of ancient culture as one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World. It is generally accepted by our contemporaries that the mausoleum is the burial vault of great leaders.
Why was this unique structure called the mausoleum? To understand where this name comes from, one should plunge into the history of Caria, whose capital was Halicarnassus (now Turkish Bodrum). In the 4th century BC. in the capital city of Caria, a tomb was erected for a married couple - the very ruler of Caria, Mavsol, and his wife, who bore the name of Artemisia. Therefore, over time, the building received such a name - the mausoleum (from the Greek word Mausoleion).
The construction of the tomb was started during the life of Mavsol, but the ruler did not wait for the completion of its construction - he died. According to some historical data, the construction process continued to be led by the widow Artemisia, who really loved her husband and wanted to perpetuate his memory in this way. Based on these great feelings, the mausoleum at Halicarnassus was later recognized as a monument of love.
but the mausoleum in Halicarnassus was built not only as a tomb - Mavsol and Artemisia wanted it to be both a tomb and a temple at the same time. To translate their ideas into reality, eminent architects of Greece Pytheas and Satyr and sculptors Leohar, Timothy, Skopas and Bricasides were invited - the best masters of that time. Their fruitful collaboration ended in a mixture of architectural styles, but this did not spoil the mausoleum. On the contrary, the building turned out to be so unusual that the Greeks had not yet seen buildings like it, since it was a combination of the most beautiful styles of that time - Doric, Corinthian and Ionic.
Description of the mausoleum at Halicarnassus
The builders placed the tomb in the peripter, a building framed by a colonnade of 11-meter columns. It took 36 columns to support the roof of the mausoleum. The gaps between the columns were filled with various statues of mythological figures, and the roof looked like a stepped pyramid with 24 steps. Its crown was a marble quadriga, that is, an antique chariot with four horses harnessed to it. 
Huge statues of Mavsol and Artemisia were placed in the chariot, playing the role of driver. This magnificent sculpture reached a height of 6 m. In the tomb there were marble sarcophagi intended for the royal couple. The foot of the mausoleum was decorated with sculptures of horsemen and marble lions.
The tomb-temple could not be called an ordinary structure, because in fact it was a whole architectural complex of solid size, which had its own courtyard. In its center, a rectangular platform made of stone measuring 19 x 11 m was installed. And to get to the top of the mausoleum, one had to make a path along a wide staircase, the guards of which were stone lions.
From the inside, the building was decorated with bas-reliefs, which reflected scenes from the legends and tales of ancient Greece. The outer walls of the mausoleum were decorated with sculptures of gods and goddesses. At the corners of the structure were huge stone statues of warrior guards. In general, the structure, called both the mausoleum, and the temple, and the tomb at the same time, was 46 m high (from its very base to the top with a sculpture of a chariot).
The fate of the mausoleum built at Halicarnassus
353 BC was marked for Caria by the death of Mavsol, whose corpse was cremated. At that time, the construction of the mausoleum had not yet been completed. The inconsolable Artemisia, wishing to quickly connect with the spirit of her deceased husband, drank a strange mixture made from the ashes of Mavsol, water and aromatic substances.
But death did not come to her after drinking such a drink - Artemisia lived for another 2 years. The body of the deceased queen was subsequently burned and buried next to her husband. So the spouses-rulers found their last refuge, and only after that the entrance to the tomb was finally bricked up with stones.
The mausoleum in Halicarnassus was so durable that it delighted the eyes of the ancient people for the 19th centuries. And in the 15th century AD it was slightly damaged by an earthquake. But the mausoleum still did not manage to survive the invasion of the crusaders - they dismantled most of it and used the materials obtained in this way to build the Castle of St. Peter, and here - on the site of the destroyed tomb. A little later, these stones were reused, only this time for the construction of the Bodrum fortress.
In general, the history of the Halicarnassus mausoleum is rich in events. At one time, he survived the conquest of the city by Alexander the Great, and even withstood an attack by pirates who coveted Halicarnassus at the beginning of the 1st century. However, after the Maltese attacked the mausoleum and took away stone and marble slabs from it, only the foundation remained of the majestic structure.
What historical values remain from the Halicarnassus mausoleum?
Unfortunately, the once grandiose structure has not "survived" to this day. Today, tourists can only see the ruins that remain from it. But even in a ruined state, the mausoleum is able to make an indelible impression on travelers. Those people who managed to go on an excursion in Bodrum were surprised that some of the walls of the Turkish fortress are made of perfectly polished marble slabs. But they were brought precisely from ancient Halicarnassus. Parts of the unique mythological frescoes and statues of Mavsol and Artemisia can be seen today in the Istanbul and British museums.
How did the British Museum, located thousands of kilometers from the ancient Greek Halicarnassus, be replenished with this amazing find? The fact is that rumors about the beauty of the remains of the ancient cultural monument that have become an adornment of Bodrum reached a man from the British Embassy in Turkey. Upon arrival at the historic site, he bought a permit from the authorities to remove 12 slabs from the walls for their transportation to the British Museum. When the plates were presented to the British scientists, they were able to conclude that in front of them was nothing but a particle of the frieze of the famous Scopas.
So Sir Newton, the director of the British Museum, was finally convinced that in search of the remains of the Halicarnassus mausoleum he should go to Bodrum, where he hurried. And the first thing he had to face on going ashore was two marble lions walled up in the wall of the fortress.
During the 9 months that Newton spent in Bodrum, he managed to find many fragments of the mausoleum and 4 slabs made by the ancient sculptor Skopas. But the most interesting thing awaited him ahead, because at the end of the archaeological excavations, he discovered the statues of Mavsol and Artemisia, which once stood in a chariot on the roof of the mausoleum. Of course, they were split into many parts, but the find was still of considerable historical value. In addition, a stubborn Englishman found a marble horse's head, decorated with pendants and a gilded bronze bridle. Newton brought all these finds to his museum, and this was in 1857.
Excavations of the mysterious tomb were also carried out under the leadership of Christian Jeppesen. They ended in the 70s of the last century. All the found statues, bas-reliefs and various elements of the ancient structure helped the scientists to recreate the appearance of the tomb. According to her project, such architectural monuments as the Church of St. George in London, the Warriors Memorial in Indiana, City Hall in Los Angeles, etc. were built.But no matter how hard modern architects tried, they failed to convey all the grandeur that was inherent in the ancient mausoleum, built to rest the ashes of the rulers of Caria.
