Bodrum Mausoleion Monument Museum

The Mausoleion was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Maussollos, of the Hekatomnid dynasty and appointed satrap of Caria by the Persians, began building it in his own lifetime, shortly before 353 BC. After his death his wife and sister Artemisia continued the work. The name of the tomb gave the English language the word mausoleum.

Its design broke with the architectural styles of its time. Ancient authors give its height as 80 Ionic feet, roughly 50 metres, about the height of a 20-storey building, and they name Pytheos, architect of the Temple of Athena at Priene, as its designer. The Roman writer Pliny recorded its dimensions in his Natural History.

Little of the monument survives on the site, so this is a visit that rewards imagination: the museum tells the story of the wonder that once dominated the harbour city of Halicarnassus, today's Bodrum.