Mausoleum at Halicarnassus: A Death Fit for a Ruler

When your inevitable death arrives, where would you like to be buried? For Mausolus, the ruler of Caria, a simple wooden coffin wasn’t enough—he wanted grand: a forty five metre tall marvel of columns, statues, and art.

The mausoleum was situated in Halicarnassus, the capital of a small kingdom called Caria of which Mausolus was the ruler. As any well-organised person would, he commissioned the tomb before his death and spared no expense, hiring only the most talented artists and sculptors of the time. The tomb was then built on a hill that overlooked the entire city, with a mix of various styles: Greek, Near Eastern, and Egyptian. Each side of the mausoleum was adorned with sculptures of the four leading Greek artists at the time—Scopas, Bryaxis, Leochares, and Timotheus—proving the lengths he would go to for grandeur. Scopas in fact, was the man who oversaw the rebuilding of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, another one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World. 

The Seven Ancient Wonders of the World weren’t decided by a singular person though, they were from several Hellenistic Greek writers who created their own lists which then evolved into the “official” list of seven. Antipater of Sidon mentioned the mausoleum in his poem listing the wonders, while Philo of Byzantium wrote about it in his work titled “On the Seven Wonders”.

“I have gazed on the walls of impregnable Babylon... on Zeus by the banks of the Alpheus... the hanging gardens, and the Colossus of the Sun... the massive labor of the high pyramids, and the gigantic tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, ‘Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand.’”

— Antipater of Sidon, from the Greek Anthology (IX.58)

So, when death comes to claim you, perhaps a mausoleum would be a good option—which you now know is named after this wonder of the world.

Artistic Recreation of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Britannica)

Adnan Qiblawi. “How the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus Became a Wonder of the Ancient World | Artnet News.” Artnet News, 28 Dec. 2024, news.artnet.com/art-world/how-the-mausoleum-at-halicarnassus-became-a-wonder-of-the-ancient-world-2563606.

Cartwright, Mark. “Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.” World History Encyclopedia, 26 July 2018, www.worldhistory.org/Mausoleum_at_Halicarnassus/.

“Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.” Wikipedia, 12 Nov. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_at_Halicarnassus.

“Mausoleum of Halicarnassus | History & Facts.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/Mausoleum-of-Halicarnassus.

van Huyssteen, Justin. “Mausoleum at Halicarnassus - the History of the Tomb of Mausolus.” Artincontext.org, 11 Jan. 2023, artincontext.org/mausoleum-at-halicarnassus/.