The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus was the great tomb of Maussollos, built by his widow, Artmesia, between 353 and

351 BC. It seems that the Mausoleum may have stood reasonably intact until the thirteenth century AD, when the roof and colonnade collapsed in a series of earthquakes. The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus was built between about 353 and 351 BC by Mausolus sister and widow, Artemisia. The mausoleum was probably destroyed by a series of earthquakes between the 11th and the 15th century AD. In 1522, rumours of an impending Turkish invasion caused the Knights of St John of Malta to reinforce their large castle called Bodrum Castle. The marble from the mausoleum was either broken up and used in the walls or crushed to make lime for plaster. The knights also incorporated statues they had found into the castle as decoration. In 1853, archaeologist C Newton from the British Museum was sent to locate the Mausoleum. He did not know the exact location of the tomb, so, after having studied the accounts of Pliny and the like, he bought a small parcel of land which fit the description best and excavated it, digging tunnels into surrounding parcels of land as the museum could not afford to buy up all of them. Eventually he came upon three corners of the foundation and bought the corresponding blocks of land. Archeological evidence