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She employed the best artists in Greece: Scopas, who'd overseen the rebuilding of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, and three other famous sculptors, Leochares, Bryaxis and Timotheus. Each man took one side of the square building and carved wonderful statues of people, gods, goddesses, lions, horses and many other animals. There were friezes on the podium and roof, one of which showed the battle between the Greeks and the Amazons whose fragments can be seen in the British Museum. It was built on a hill overlooking Halicarnassus, on a platform in a courtyard. Stairs flanked by stone lions led up to it and stone warriors on horseback guarded each corner. The roof was in the shape of a pyramid and perched on the top was a huge chariot pulled by four horses which carried statues of Mausolus and Artemisia.
The tomb survived for 1600 years but was eventually destroyed by a series of earthquakes and by 1404 AD only the base remained.
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