Belevi Mausoleum

The Belevi Mausoleum, also known as the Mausoleum at Belevi is a Hellenistic monument tomb located in Turkey. The monument was the burial place of the Seleucid Greek King Antiochus II Theos who reigned 261–246 BC.

The Belevi Mausoleum was a grandiose tomb. The name of the mausoleum derives from the modern village of Belevi where the monument is located and sits on an isolated hillside. The mausoleum is located 14 km northeast of Ephesus next to the modern highway from İzmir to Aydın in the eastern part of the Kaystros-valley close to the ancient estates of the Ephesian sanctuary of Artemisia; is 16 km or 10 miles northeast of Selçuk and is 29 km from Kuşadası. Latitude: 38.014624 N or 38°00´52.646399" N Longitude: 27.472097 E or 27°28´19.5492" E

The Belevi Mausoleum is the second largest mausoleum in Anatolia after the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus which it resembles and it is also the second highest tomb house of ancient Anatolia. The influence of this tomb seems to have been widespread throughout the Hellenistic world directly or indirectly in the construction of other royal tombs. According to archaeological dating in ornaments and ceramics from the monument, the mausoleum was first erected around 301 BC-281 BC and has occasionally been dated earlier to 333 BC, based on the assumption that it was the tomb of the admiral Memnon of Rhodes, who in that year died in a naval encounter before Lesbos. Others who may have owned the tomb were the brothers of Memnon: Mentor of Rhodes (died 333 BC) or (died shortly after 318 BC).

Based on archaeological evidence and dating, it was first erected as a royal tomb by Lysimachus. He was possibly inspired by the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus to build his mausoleum. Lysimachus was a Greek Macedonian King and one of the diadochus or successors of King Alexander the Great. The capital of Lysimachus’ Kingdom was Ephesus, but when he died in 281 BC, he was buried at Lysimachia. When Antiochus II died in July 246 his first wife and cousin Laodice I placed him in this mausoleum as his final resting place.

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