Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

The tomb had a tall base and lots of columns.

On top was a roof shaped like a staircase, with 24 steps. At the very top stood a marble chariot pulled by four horses!

Two Greek architects, Pythius and Satyros, designed the Mausoleum. A Roman writer named Pliny the Elder, who lived about 400 years later, described it. He said it was almost square, with 36 columns around it.

On top of the columns sat a roof shaped like a pyramid of 24 steps, and on the very top stood a marble chariot pulled by four horses. Pliny said the whole building measured 125 meters around its edge. Nobody alive has seen it, so experts use his words and the pieces found on the site to work out what it looked like.

Britannica names the architects as Pythius (whose name sources spell variously, casting doubt on his identity) and Satyros. Britannica relies on the description by the Roman author Pliny the Elder (23 to 79 CE): an almost square building with a total periphery of 411 feet (125 m), bounded by 36 columns, its top formed as a 24-step pyramid crowned by a four-horse marble chariot.

Because the monument fell and was quarried, its exact form remains a reconstruction combining Pliny's text with excavated blocks and sculpture. The Danish excavations from 1966 investigated the terrace on which it stood, and the Antikmuseet displays a wooden model made by the former museum technician Axel Sønderborg, one of many attempts to picture the lost building.

Famous artists carved statues for the tomb.

Each artist made the carvings for one side. One big statue is taller than a grown-up. Some of the carvings are now in a museum in London.

The Mausoleum was famous for its sculptures. Four of the best Greek artists of the time each decorated one side: Scopas, Bryaxis, Leochares and, most likely, Timotheus.

When Charles Newton dug at the site in the 1850s, he sent the pieces he found to the British Museum in London. They include a long carved band, called a frieze, showing a battle, and a statue 3 meters tall that may show Mausolus himself. Other stones from the tomb went into the walls of Bodrum's castle.

Britannica attributes the sculpture to four leading Greek artists, Scopas, Bryaxis, Leochares and most likely Timotheus, each responsible for a single side. Fragments preserved in the British Museum include a battle frieze and a statue about 10 feet (3 m) high, possibly of Mausolus.

The sculptures that Newton recovered in 1856 and 1857 went to London, so understanding the monument today means combining finds in London, blocks reused in Bodrum's castle and the remains still on site.

In 1966, archaeologists from Denmark came to dig.

They found the room where Mausolus was buried. Robbers had taken almost everything long ago. Only bits of glass, pots and little gold plates were left.

On April 13, 1966, Danish archaeologists led by Kristian Jeppesen began digging in Bodrum. In 1970, the town wanted soil to build a new harbor. The archaeologists supplied it, and in return they were allowed to dig into the burial chamber itself.

The tomb had been robbed, probably in ancient times. Only pieces of glass, pottery and small gold plates were left. The team went on to study the whole ancient town: its streets, houses, graves and its city wall, which is the best preserved building from ancient Halicarnassus.

The Danish Halicarnassus project, begun on April 13, 1966 by Kristian Jeppesen of Aarhus University, first investigated the terrace on which the monument stood. In 1970, when Bodrum's council needed fill for a new harbor, the archaeologists supplied soil and in return excavated the burial chamber, finding it plundered, probably in antiquity, with only fragments of glass, pottery and small gold plates left.

The project grew into a study of the whole town: its size, street layout, houses, graves and fortifications, including the city wall, the best-preserved building of ancient Halicarnassus, and later the palace of Mausolus below the castle. More than a hundred specialists took part; since 1990 the work has officially been directed by the Museum of Bodrum. The Antikmuseet reports that the project has not received a work permit since 2013.