Moving backwards up the roster we arrive at the 5th wonder of the Ancient World, The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was built for Mausolus, a governor in the Persian Empire. It was built as him tomb and the word Mausoleum has now been adopted into our language to mean a tomb above ground, similarly to how pharos became the word for lighthouse in many language; it's incredible the different ways in which the Ancient World has affected us in modern day. This wonder of the world was roughly 150 feet high and had sculptures on every side, each designed by a different Greek architect. It is said that it was constructed in two years but modern historians state that it would not have been possible and theorise that Mausolus began building it before his death (imagine building your own grave, how creepy!). Roman records state that Greek architects Satyros and Pytheus designed the mausoleum; this is one difficulty with ancient history, we have limited sources and so often must summise (conclude) our own history from the various versions of what supposedly happened. It was the Romans that began to call their tombs Mausolea after witnessing this great tomb and they spoke Latin which is the origin of most modern languages so you can see how the english word Mausoleum came to exist.
The great tomb resembled a temple in all but its walls which were higher than a temple would be. Again we cannot be entirely sure when the magnificent building fell into ruin but we have records to say it is a wonder in 1202 and that it was in ruins in the 1400s so it must have been destroyed sometime between then. The commonly accepted reason is put down to earthquakes as with several of the great structures in the Hellenic regions of the Ancient world. Much of the ruins was used by the Crusading knights in the 1400s to fortify their castle at Bodrum (Halicarnassus) but some of this old Turkish wonder remains in museums, particularly some of the sculptures that were laced around the walls of the Mausoleum. This grand tomb was ranked in the seven wonders of the Ancient World not for its size particularly but for its grand design and the beauty of the sculptures that decorated it.
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