Place:
In the town of Bodrum (FKA Halicarnasse) on the Aegean Sea, in the south-west of Turkey.

History:
When Persians widened their old kingdom d' to include Mésopotamie, l' India of North, Syria, l' Egypt and l' Minor Asia, the king could not control his vast empire without l' helps of the local governors or controlling - the satraps. As much d' other provinces, the kingdom of Decay in the Western part of l' Asia Mineure (Turkey) was so far from the Persian capital qu' it was practically autonomous. From 377 to 353 before J. - C., king Mausole de Carie reigned and transferred its capital to Halicarnasse. Nothing n' is more exciting in connection with the life Halicarnasse exception of the construction of its tomb. The project was conceived by his wife and Artémise sister, and construction could have begun the alive one of the king. The mausoleum was completed towards 350 before JC, three years after the death of Mausole, and a year after l' Artemisia. During 16 centuries, the Mausoleum remained in good state jusqu' with this qu' an earthquake because certain damage with the roof and colonnade. At the beginning of XVe century, the Knights of St Jean of Malta invaded the area and built a cross castle massive. When they decided to strengthen it in 1494, they used the stones of the mausoleum. In 1522, almost all the blocks of the mausoleum had been dismounted and used for construction. Aujourd' today, l' imposing castle always holds in Bodrum, and the polished stone and of the blocks of marble of the mausoleum can be located with l' interior of the walls of the structure. Some of these sculptures survived and are aujourd' today exposed to the British Museum of London. It s' acts in particular of the fragments of statues and flagstones of the plank the many ones showing the battle between the Greeks and Amazones. On the site of the mausoleum itself, only the foundation remains of l' amazement, once splendid.

Description:
The structure was of plan rectangular, with basic dimensions d' approximately 40 m (120 ft) for 30 m (100 pi). Recovering the Foundation was an intensified podium which sides are decorated with statues. The funerary room and white the alabaster sarcophagus, decorated d' however were on the podium and surrounded by ionic columns. The colonnade supported a pyramidal roof which was in its turn decorated with statues. A statue d' a tank drawn by four horses decorated in top with the tomb. The total height of the mausoleum was of 45 m (140 pi). This sum is broken down in 20 m (60 pi) for the podium in staircase, 12 m (38 pi) for the colonnade, 7 m (22 pi) for the pyramid, and 6 m (20 pi) for the statue of tank in top. The beauty of the Mausoleum is not only in the structure itself, but in decorations and the statues which decorated l' outside on different levels on the podium and the roof. They are tens of size like under and on the self-supporting life of size statues of the people, the lions, the horses and other animals. The statues were carved by four Greek sculptors: Bryaxis, Léocharès, Scopas, and Timothée, each one responsible d' a side. Because the statues were people and animals, the Mausoleum occupies a particular place in Passées because it n' was not dedicated to the gods of ancient Greece. Since the XIXe century, archaeological excavations were carried out on the site of the Mausoleum. These excavations as of the descriptions detailed by the old historians give us enough an good idea on the form and l' appearance of the Mausoleum. A modern reconstitution on the small side of the Mausoleum illustrates nature lavishes l' art and l' structure of l' building… a building for a king whose name is celebrated in all the large tombs aujourd' today - mausoleums.