The Mausoleum at Halikarnassos

The Mausoleum at Halikarnassos, designed by the sculptor-architects Pytheos and Satyros, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was built as a tomb for Maussollos, a member of the Hekatomnid dynasty who governed Karia in south-west Asia Minor. When he came to power in 377 BC, Karia was a distant part of the then weakening Persian empire; Maussollos succeeded in creating a kingdom in all but name and established a new capital at Halikarnassos (modern Bodrum). He may have planned and directed the early stages of the construction of his tomb, but died before its completion. Work on the Mausoleum continued until, and perhaps after, the death of his sister-wife Artemisia in 351 BC. The modern word for a monumental tomb (mausoleum) derives from the Latin form of Maussollos' name.

According to the Roman writer Pliny the Elder, the tomb was 140 feet high, had a peristyle of thirty-six columns and a stepped pyramid roof, crowned with a marble quadriga (a four-horsed chariot). Although the high podium recalled earlier Lykian tombs and the pyramid showed Egyptian influence, the architectural design was predominantly Ionian Greek in style.