Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

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Model of the Maussolleion ( Miniaturk amusement park )
Statue of the Solos of the Mouse ( British Museum )

The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus or Maussolleion for short was the magnificent tomb of Maussolos , a minor king of Caria and Persian satrap (377–353 BC), located in the ancient Greek city of Halicarnassus (today Bodrum ) on the southwest coast of today's Turkey . The mausoleum was one of the " Seven Wonders of the World ". It was built by two Greek architects and four Greek sculptors.

In Latin it was called "Tomb Halicarnasense" (sepulcrum Mausoli Halicarnasense) , on Ancient Greek "the grave of Maussollos" ( ὁ Τάφος τοῦ Μαυσσώλου; τὸ Μαυσσώλειον Ἁλικαρνασσεύς, τὸ Μαυσ (σ) ωλ (λ) εῖον τοῦ Ἁλικαρνασσοῦ , ho Taphos tou Maussôllou, tò Maussôleíon Halikarnasseús, tò Mausôleíon toû Halikarnassoû) .

construction

Frieze with the battle of the amazons (British Museum)

The mausoleum was built around 368 to 350 BC. In Halicarnassus, the new capital of Caria in Asia Minor , in today's Bodrum on the Aegean southwest coast of today's Turkey . The foundation was excavated on a 105 m × 244 m large rock terrace on a hillside, which was later enclosed as a burial district by a surrounding wall ( περίβολος - Peribolos ). The foundation plate measured 32 m × 38.40 m, the building reached a total height of about 46 m. The base of three slightly recessed steps was made of green volcanic stone and covered with marble. In front of each of the steps, which were built in a ratio of 3: 4: 5 higher, there were round sculptures, in front of the lowest on the protruding floor slab scenes of equestrian combat between Greeks and Persians in about natural size, in front of the hero figures above in oversize and in front of the third hunting scene in double normal size . Above it rose a ring hall - in the form of a peripteros (περίπτερος) or pteron (πτερόν) - with 36 (9 by 11) Ionic columns , between which oversized sculptures were placed, figures of gods and those of the ruling house, what the tomb also called heroon made appear. The top end of the third step (podium, 18.5 m) below the columns as well as a band behind the columns and the quadriga pedestal carried splendid relief friezes with battles of the Amazons (Amazonomachy) , chariot races and Lapiths and Centaurs . The roof of the building was a 24-step pyramid (7 m) - corresponding to the reign of the king -, the top end of the tomb was a marble quadriga directed by Maussollos and Artemisia on a base with a frieze (6 m, see below) on the top of the pyramid who has been awarded to Pytheos. Both the horses of the Quadriga and other figures were provided with bronze applications (bridles, weapons). The most famous Greek sculptors of the time were hired: Bryaxis from Caria (north side), Leochares from Athens (west side), Timotheos (south side) and Skopas from Paros (east side). The finished building shone in a white marble sheen.

Its fame since its completion was so great that the names Maussoleion and Mausoleum have since become synonymous with a magnificent tomb . The word "Maussol – eion" itself means "dedicated to or belonging to the Maussolos" (compare: "Artemision - Temple of Artemis ").

history

Since Antipater of Sidon it has been part of the classic canon of the seven wonders of the world because of its beauty, the overwhelming overall impression and the precious statues and relief friezes, and it was not until the 16th century that its foundations were almost completely removed. According to Strabo , Maussolos' wife and sister Artemisia II , not her husband himself, had the building built. But she can only come close to completing the mausoleum in the two years that she outlived her husband. Satyros and Pytheos have been handed down as architects , who wrote a book about the tomb that has not been handed down. It was only finished three years after Maussollos' and one year after Artemisia's death by the artists themselves. The mausoleum was certainly badly damaged by an earthquake in the 12th century, but its foundations remained intact for almost the entire Middle Ages . In 1404 and, according to eyewitness reports, again in 1523, it was demolished by the Knights of the Order of St. John in order to obtain building material for their St. Peter's fortress . This act of destruction is understandable only in connection with the retreat of the Crusaders from Rhodes , after they had already lost Cyprus and now had to capitulate to the troops of Suleiman the Magnificent and leave Rhodes. In a hurry one of the last Christian bridgeheads was built here before the knights of the order finally withdrew to the island of Malta in 1530 .

Already in the older parts of the castle, which was built in 1404, there are architectural and relief pieces made of marble and the typical gray-green ashlar stones that made up the core of the tomb. But even in 1497/98, when the Florentines Bernardo Michelozzi and Bonsignore Bonsignori visited Asia Minor, they reported that significant parts of the tomb were still intact. Some fragments found their way to Europe. It is therefore certain that the final act of the tragedy of this wonder of the world did not actually take place until 1523. The fortress commander de la Tourette, commissioned with the repair of the castle, reports that after the discovery of the actual burial chamber , a large room furnished with marble , the relief slabs were smashed without further ado and the building was abandoned.

reconstruction

Today's remains of the mausoleum (2006)
Imagined representation of the mausoleum (engraving by Maarten van Heemskerck , 16th century)
House of the Temple in Washington, DC ( Masonic temple designedby John Russell Pope 1911–1915 based on the model of the mausoleum)

Since the 18th century numerous attempts have been made to reconstruct the appearance of the building on the basis of the ancient literary description by Pliny . They led to as many different as imaginative solutions. The efforts were only put on a scientific basis when an English excavation under Charles Thomas Newton (1816-1894) uncovered parts of the foundation in 1857 and sculptures and components were found. However, it was not until the Danish research and excavations from 1966 to 1977 under Kristian Jeppesen that a comprehensive reconstruction, largely based on components, could be worked out. The frieze and statues of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus are now in the British Museum in London. Although the tomb is no longer there, it is of central importance in architectural history as one of the most important and outstanding works of Ionic architecture of the late classical period . That is why a model of the mausoleum belongs to the collection of architectural icons by the architect Oswald Mathias Ungers . In 2003, the qualified designer and architectural model maker Bernd Grimm created a miniature of the building from alabaster plaster on a scale of 1:66 on behalf of the architect . The model is kept in Unger's archive for architectural science.

today

The tourist metropolis of Bodrum is located on the site of ancient Halicarnassus. Its modern name, which means something like "underground vault " in Turkish , still points to the buried remains of the mausoleum today. The deepening of the burial chamber about eight meters below today's ground level can still be seen of the building, as can the remains of the sewer system that encompasses the building. In an adjoining room, remains of reliefs and building materials can be seen.

literature

  • Egon Bauer: The Seven Wonders of the World. 2nd Edition. Orbis, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-572-01273-2 , p. 100 ff.
  • Fritz Krischen : World wonder of architecture in Babylonia and Jonia. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1956.
  • The Maussolleion at Halicarnassus. Reports of the "Danish Archaeological Expedition" to Bodrum :
    • Volume 1: The sacrificial deposit. 1981.
    • Volume 2: Kristian Jeppesen, Anthony Luttrell: The written sources and their archaeological background. 1986.
    • Volume 3: Poul Pedersen: The Maussolleion Terrace and accessory structures. 1991.
    • Volume 4: Kristian Jeppesen: The Quadrangle. 2000.
    • Volume 5: Kristian Jeppesen: The superstructure: a comparative analysis of the architectural, sculptural, and literary evidence. 2002.
    • Volume 6: Jan Zahle, Kjeld Kjeldsen: Subterranean and pre-Maussollan structures on the site of the Maussolleion. The finds from the tomb chamber of Maussollos. 2004.
  • Geoffrey B. Waywell: The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. In: Peter A. Clayton, Martin J. Price (eds.): Die Sieben Weltwunder. Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-15-010363-0 , pp. 134-163.

Web links

Commons : Mausoleum at Halicarnassus  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oliver Hülden: Thoughts on the meaning of the Amazonomachy at the Maussolleion of Halicarnassus. In: Hilmar Klinkott (Ed.): Anatolia in the light of cultural interactions. Acculturation phenomena in Asia Minor and its neighboring regions during the 2nd and 1st millennium BC Chr. Attempto, Tübingen 2001, ISBN 3-89308-333-2 , pp. 83-105 ( online at academia.edu).
  2. ↑ Strabo 14, 2, 16.
  3. ↑ Pliny : Naturalis historia . 36, 30-31.
  4. ↑ Ungers Archive for Architectural Science. Model workshop. In: www.ungersarchiv.de. Retrieved June 21, 2019 .

Coordinates: 37 ° 2 ′ 16.6 ″  N , 27 ° 25 ′ 26.6 ″  E