The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus stood approximately 45 meters high.
The monumental tomb was built at Halicarnassus, in present-day Bodrum, Turkey, for Mausolus, the Persian satrap of Caria, and his sister-wife Artemisia II. Construction began after Mausolus’s death around 353 BC and continued under Artemisia, who is traditionally said to have commissioned the finest Greek artists available.
Greek architects Satyros of Paros and Pythius of Priene designed the structure. Its elevated tomb stood above a substantial base, a colonnade, and a pyramidal roof topped by a marble chariot carrying figures of Mausolus and Artemisia. Sculptural reliefs were made by artists including Scopas, Bryaxis, Leochares, and Timotheus.
The 45-meter figure is an approximation because the building no longer survives and ancient descriptions differ in their measurements. Its name became the source of the general word “mausoleum.” The monument was eventually destroyed by a series of earthquakes between the 12th and 15th centuries.