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The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

A ten‑minute journey from the power of Mausolus and Artemisia, through the master sculptors who built the wonder, to its destruction and the medieval reuse of its stone.

Chapters

0:07 Power and Patronage
1:25 The Artists and Design
2:53 From Glory to Ruin
3:53 Afterlife of Stone

On-screen text

0:07 Power and Patronage
0:14 Power and Patronage
0:40 Artemisia succeeds Mausolus (353 BCE) Historical record · Herodotus, Histories 1.173
0:58 Construction of the Mausoleum begins 353 BCE Historical record · Bodrum Museum inscription fragment (BM 1)
1:16 Four master sculptors appointed Historical record · Pliny the Elder, Natural History 36.31
1:25 The Artists and Design
1:41 Scopas creates eastern frieze figures Historical record · Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.5.6
1:59 Timotheus carves Amazonomachy relief Historical record · Pliny the Elder, Natural History 36.31
2:17 Leochares casts bronze roof statues Historical record · Vitruvius, De architectura 2.9
2:35 Height ~45 m; base 28 m square Historical record · Vitruvius, De architectura 2.9
2:44 Hybrid Greek‑Near Eastern design Historical record · Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 5.78
2:53 From Glory to Ruin
3:00 From Glory to Ruin
3:26 15th‑century quakes ruin remains Historical record · Chronicon Paschale, entry for 1402
3:44 Listed as a Wonder of the World Tradition / scripture · Antipater of Sidon, Greek Anthology 7.23
3:53 Afterlife of Stone
4:00 Bodrum Castle, Turkey, 1480s
4:58 British Museum, London, 19th c.

Sources

Historical record: Herodotus, Histories 1.173 · Bodrum Museum inscription fragment (BM 1) · Pliny the Elder, Natural History 36.31 · Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.5.6 · Vitruvius, De architectura 2.9 · Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 5.78 · Procopius, De Aedificiis 2.5 · Chronicon Paschale, entry for 1402 · [record: Bodrum Castle archaeological survey, Turkish Ministry of Culture, 1998] · [record: Archivio di Stato di Malta, Order of St John inventory, 1495]

Tradition / scripture: Antipater of Sidon, Greek Anthology 7.23

The Institute's interpretation: [interpretation: British Museum, BM 1845,001 (lion statue fragment)]

Sound: synthesized ambient (wind, drone, water) (CC0 — made by SoapBox). Made in 191 s of CPU.

Scenes Hathor has no parts for yet (10) — the next things to make

A Persian‑style court in Halicarnassus, Mausolus seated on a throne with officials around him.
The Artists and Design: Introduce the four master sculptors, their individual contributions, and the architectural innovations of the monument.
Bryaxis shaping a draped female form in a studio filled with marble dust.
Bryaxis shaping a draped female form in a studio filled with marble dust.
Cross‑section drawing showing the podium, Ionic colonnade, and stepped roof.
Seismic tremor shaking the structure; roof stones crashing onto the podium.
Masons hoist the marble onto the castle walls, fitting each piece into the new masonry with mortar.
Completed curtain wall of Bodrum Castle, marble blocks gleaming among the regular stonework.
A slow drift of fine marble dust illuminated by a shaft of light in an empty workshop.
Close view of a weathered inscription on a marble block within the castle, letters barely legible.