The monument standing at the spot known as Belevi, to the east of the road junction 11 km. from Ephesus, ranks as the largest and highest tomb in ancient Anatolia after the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Judging by the surviving fragments of the Belevi Mausoleum, the podium, proved to have been 11.37 m. high, was composed of local rock, faced on four sides with beatifully cut blocks of stone. It was based on a square plan, measuring 29.65 sq.m. The rock core was hewn into shape at the sides and top to render it suitable to receive the stone facing The mass of rock was hollowed out on the south side to form a burial chamber in which was originally placed the sarcophagus now in the Ephesus Museum.
The total height of the monument, the roof not included, was about 23 m. The roof was decorated with lion-griffins (now in the Selcuk’s Museum and in Izmir ‘s Archaeological Museum), and the interior held a large sarcophagus with a carved effigy of its occupant; the sarcophagus is now in the Museum in Selcuk. The craftsmanship displayed in the architectural ornamentation, the mouldings and the Corinthian capitals is of a high standard.
Archaeologists are not certain who built this great tomb. It may have been the Seleucid ruler Antiochus II Theos (261-246 B.C.), or it may have been the work of the Persian invaders a century or more earlier.
Just west of the Mausoleum is a tumulus, or burial mound, thought to date from the 4th century B.C., but little remains.