MAUSOLEUL DIN HALICARNAS

   

This monument, considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, is located in today's
city of Bodrum, in southwestern Turkey, on the shores of the Aegean Sea.
The history of the mausoleum begins with the expansion of the Persian kingdom when, due to the
vast territory, the king could not control the entire empire without the help of local governors.
Like other provinces, the province of Caria in western Asia Minor was so far from the capital of
Persia that it was practically autonomous between 377-353 BC, when King Mausolus ruled, who
moved the capital to Halicarnassus .
The construction of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was requested by Artemisia, the wife of King
Mausolus, to serve as his temple and tomb.
Completed in 350 BC, three years after the king's death, the grand funerary monument was
preserved in perfect condition for sixteen centuries. It was built by the great architects, Pilos and
Satiros, each facade of the monument being decorated separately by other great artists of the time:
Scopas, Timotheos, Bryaxis, Leunchares Scopas, Timotheos, Bryaxis, Leunchares.

Combining superb architecture with magnificent sculptures, the Halicarnassus Mausoleum

offered an extraordinary sight.
The great conquerors, such as Alexander the Great (who conquered the city of
Halicarnassus in 334 BC), spared the monument and treated it with respect. But in the twelfth
century, it seems, a strong earthquake destroyed the monument.
In the century XV Knights of the Order of Malta invaded the region and decided to build a
fortress here and, from 1494, they began to use the stones of the mausoleum for the construction of
the new edifice. By 1522, almost every stone in the mausoleum was used for construction. The
fortress still exists today in Bodrum, and its walls feature carved stones and marble from the
former mausoleum building.
English archaeologists excavated the archaeological site in 1857 and discovered important
fragments of sculptures dating from the period of the mausoleum. They are currently on display at
the British Museum in London.
Nowadays, only the foundation of what was once one of the great wonders of the ancient
world remains on the site of the mausoleum, in the northern part of Bodrum, almost a kilometer
from the center, in an open-air museum, being accessible to the public.

Dimitrie Sabău
Clasa a VIII-a A