A mausoleum is is a large sepulchre or monument, usually decorated with works. The first mausoleum owes its name to the tomb of the King of Caria, in Asia Minor. As a matter of fact, when king Mausolus of Caria died in 353 BC, his widow Artemisia had a huge monument decorated with works of art and surrounded by statues, erectedto his memory. The monument was 140 feet high and stood in the city of Halicarnassus (present Bodrum in Turkey). In the second century B.C, the Greek author Philon of Byzantium wrote down a list of the seven most magnificent monuments in the world. Subsquently these were called "the Seven Wonders of the World" and Philon regarded Halicarnassus mausoleum as the fourth wonder of the World. The sepulchre stood until 1375 when it collapsed under an earthquake. Parts of it are now in the British Museum, in London. Ever since, most European monuments of the kind have been named after King Mausolus, such as the Greek Mausoleion or the Portuguese Mausoléu. Whereas the word Mausoleo spread to Spain and Italy, in Russia Lenin is resting in his Mavzoley.

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