Mausoleum at Halicarnassus belongs to the years before the Common Era — dated here to c. 351 BCE at Halicarnassus (Bodrum). The date is a scholarly centre of gravity, not a foundation-stone timestamp.
Artemisia II buried Mausolus in a tomb so famous that “mausoleum” became the generic word for a grand burial house.
How it was made
Greek sculptors carved Amazonomachy slabs; a pyramid roof carried a four-horse chariot about 45 metres above the Carian harbour.
Why it still counts as a wonder
It sits on the canonical Greek list of seven wonders of the ancient world — a tourist poster already in Hellenistic poetry.
Crusader knights robbed the stones for Bodrum Castle. Frieze fragments now in London still read as a wonder in pieces.
On dating
BCE in this series means years before the traditional birth of Christ, counted backward. A monument listed as c. 351 BCE may have been founded earlier, rebuilt later, or famous only in one phase. Where ancient writers disagree — as they do for Babylon’s gardens — we say so.
This is story 5 of 100 in The Trend Ledger’s illustrated desk on world wonders raised before the Common Era.