Mausoleum and Sacred area of Hecatomnus

Nothing has really changed about this location since the first review only that they now have a proper museum instead, charging entrance fee and it all seems a bit cleaned up.

Parking nearby is challenging. The hilltop has a small square with a few spaces if you are lucky, otherwise trying to make circles in these narrow streets isn't adviced. You can park on the main road below if you feel that's safe.

There isn't much to see. The main mausoleum section is just big slabs of rock covered up to reduce damage. You can see all that in 10 minutes. While I understand there is history behind it and it was an important site, I don't find it having enough impact to really consider as universal value. 

The Mausoleum of Hecatomnus archaeological site lays in the middle of the modern city of Milas. While you may well go around the city when driving the main road from Bodrum to Ephesus or to the South coast of Turkey, only (T)WHS hunters would take time to drive through the town center to this site. It is managed by the museum of Milas, and entrance is free. There are very few signs to guide you there, and no park place for your car, but you can rely on Google and on the map of this website to find it.

Compared to other places in Western Turkey, this is a small site, but it is allegedly the best-preserved “mausoleum”. Four centuries before Christ, “Satrapes” (local kings), were ruling this area in the name of the then superpower: Achaemenid empire from Persia. They were heavily influenced by Hellenistic art and architecture, and one of them, Mausole, was buried in a great shrine, a kind of elevated temple, classical Greek style, in the heart of the city of Halicarnassus (nowadays Bodrum). The monument was so impressive that it was named one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and the king gave his name to this type of monument: a mausoleum. If you go to Bodrum, you can see a big archaeological pit, with few stones – in few words: almost nothing. Visiting the Mausoleum of Hecatomnus (Hecatomnus was the father of Mausole, and a Satrape as well) in Milas will …