A Doric city on the coast of the district of Karia (Caria).
Halikarnassos was noted as the birthplace of the historian, Herodotos (Herodotus), and the site of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World,1 the Tomb of Mausolus.
The Tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus was so magnificent that all subsequent grand burial structures were called Mausoleums. Mausolus was a satrap (governor) of Caria who ruled from circa 377 to 353 BCE. Construction of his tomb began after his death by his sister-wife Artemisia. The ashes of Artemisia and Mausolus were placed in the tomb.
1. The Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria
Latitude North, Longitude East
37.0344, 27.4147
| References: Strabo, Geography book 14.2.16–17 Diodorus of Sicily, The Library of History book 14.36.2; book 15.90.3 Pausanias, Description of Greece book 8.16.4 |