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Selçuk/Ephesus - Turkey tel +90-(0)232-892-6050 fax +90-(0)232-892-1594 info@anzguesthouse.com |
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Selçuk/Ephesus - Turkey tel +90-(0)232-892-6050 fax +90-(0)232-892-1594 info@anzguesthouse.com |
Halicarnassus was originally a Dorian colony of Greece. Things were swell and cultured for a while, but then Lygdamis came to power and started killing the poets. The long-winded Herodotus, a native of Halicarnassus, left in 457 BCE.
By 387 BCE the Dorian cities of Asia became subservient to Persia, and under the Persian satrap Mausolus things started looking up again.
The city prospered, and was wealthy enough for Mausolus' widow Artemisia II (who was also his sister!) to build a gigantic tomb named the Mausoleum after its occupant. It was about 45 meters tall, and the exterior walls had sculptural reliefs. It was so gigantic and elaborate that it was included in the standard list of Seven Wonders of the World (compiled by one Antipater of Sidon). And, "Mausoleum" became a general term for an above-ground tomb, especially ones that were large, elaborate, or ideally, both.
| 377 BCE | Mausolus becomes ruler. | |
| 353 BCE | Mausolus dies. | |
| 353-350 BCE | The Mausoleum is built. | |
| 334 BCE | The city falls to Alexander the Great. The Mausoleum is undamaged. | |
| 62 BCE | Pirates attack the city. The Mausoleum is undamaged. | |
| 58 BCE | More pirates! Still no damage! | |
| 1404 CE | By now, things had mostly fallen apart. A series of earthquakes had largely destroyed the Mausoleum, so that only the very base was still recognizable. | |
| 1400s CE | The Knights of St John of Malta invaded the region and built a massive castle. By now the place was known as Bodrum, as it still is today. | |
| 1494 CE | Having decided that their castle wasn't quite massive enough yet, they fortified the castle with stones from the Mausoleum. Which were, of course, nicely cut and had been just lying there for a few centuries by now. | |
| 1522 CE | There were rumors of a Turkish invasion — quick, make the castle even more massive! The Kinghts of St John of Malta broke up most of what little remained of the Mausoleum and added it to their castle. | |
| 1880-today |
Despite some vagueness about the actual design,
a number of buildings have been built along the
lines of what the design was thought to have been.
These include:
— Grant's Tomb in New York — Los Angeles City Hall — The Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne — The Indiana War Memorial in Indianapolis — The Shrine of the Temple in Washington DC |
The knights' castle is still there, and it houses the very interesting museum of underwater archaeology.
There's much more on the Mausoleum at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Maussollos
and on ancient Halicarnassus at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halicarnassus
These pictures are thumbnails, click on them to see higher resolution versions.
Once archaeologists finally figured out where the Mausoleum had been located, they were able to locate it and do some excavations.
There's not much left — just some foundations and some column pieces that the Knights of St John either missed or didn't have any use for.
There are just a few sculptural pieces remaining at the site.
By bus:
3 hours — Bodrum-Selçuk
2 hours — Bodrum-Marmaris
By ferry: daily to Kos and Rhodes, May-September.
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Selçuk/Ephesus - Turkey tel +90-(0)232-892-6050 fax +90-(0)232-892-1594 info@anzguesthouse.com |
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