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| The
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus |
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The
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus: When
the Persians expanded their ancient
kingdom to include Mesopotamia,
Northern India, Syria, Egypt, and
Asia Minor, the king could not control
his vast empire without the help
of local governors or rulers --
the Satraps. Like many other provinces,
the kingdom of Caria in the western
part of Asia Minor (Turkey) was
so far from the Persian capital
that it was practically autonomous.
From 377 to 353 BC, king Mausollos
of Caria reigned and moved his capital
to Halicarnassus. Nothing is exciting
about Maussollos life except the
construction of his tomb. The project
was conceived by his wife and sister
Artemisia, and the construction
might have started during the king's
lifetime. |
The
Mausoleum was completed around 350 BC,
three years after Maussollos death,
and one year after Artemisia's. For
16 centuries, the Mausoleum remained
in good condition until an earthquake
caused some damage to the roof and colonnade.
In the early fifteenth century, the
Knights of St John of Malta invaded
the region and built a massive crusader
castle. When they decided to fortify
it in 1494, they used the stones of
the Mausoleum. By 1522, almost every
block of the Mausoleum had been disassembled
and used for construction.
Today,
the massive castle still stands in Bodrum,
and the polished stone and marble blocks
of the Mausoleum can be spotted within
the walls of the structure. Some of
the sculptures survived and are today
on display at the British Museum in
London. These include fragment of statues
and many slabs of the frieze showing
the battle between the Greeks and the
Amazons. At the site of the Mausoleum
itself, only the foundation remains
of the once magnificent Wonder.
The
structure was rectangular in plan, with
base dimensions of about 40 m (120 ft)
by 30 m (100 ft). Overlying the foundation
was a stepped podium which sides were
decorated with statues. The burial chamber
and the sarcophagus of white alabaster
decorated with gold were located on
the podium and surrounded by Ionic columns.
The colonnade supported a pyramid roof
which was in turn decorated with statues.
A statue of a chariot pulled by four
horses adorned the top of the tomb.
The
total height of the Mausoleum was 45
m (140 ft). This is broken down into
20 m (60 ft) for the stepped podium,
12 m (38 ft) for the colonnade, 7 m
(22 ft) for the pyramid, and 6 m (20
ft) for the chariot statue at the top.
The
beauty of the Mausoleum is not only
in the structure itself, but in the
decorations and statues that adorned
the outside at different levels on the
podium and the roof. These were tens
of life-size as well as under and over
life-size free-standing statues of people,
lions, horses, and other animals. The
statues were carved by four Greek sculptors:
Bryaxis, Leochares, Scopas, and Timotheus,
each responsible for one side. Because
the statues were of people and animals,
the Mausoleum holds a special place
in histroy as it was not dedicated to
the gods of Ancient Greece.
Since
the nineteenth century, archeological
excavations have been undertaken at
the Mausoleum site. These excavations
together with detailed descriptions
by ancient historians give us a fairly
good idea about the shape and appearance
of the Mausoleum. A modern reconstruction
of the shorter side of the Mausoleum
illustrates the lavish nature of the
art and architecture of the building...
a building for a King whose name is
celebrated in all large tombs today
-- mausoleums.
Location:
In the city of Bodrum (f.k.a. Halicarnassus)
on the Aegean Sea, in south-west Turkey.
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