The site of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was rediscovered and partially excavated by C. T. Newton's expedition in 1865-6, and has been cleared completely by the Danish Archaeological Expedition to Bodrum (1966-76). Most of the fragments of relief sculpture have not been published before. The larger pieces, including slabs formerly incorporated in the Castle at Bodrum, are well known, but new, detailed photographs are published here for the first time.

The Introduction includes a history of the site and the reliefs, with a new hypothesis on their location in the castle, a critique of Newton's accounts of his excavation, and a definitive rebuttal of many attempts made over the past century to attribute the reliefs to the sculptors named by Pliny and Vitruvius as responsible for decorating the four sides of the building, attempts now seen to be mistaken in method and misleading in results.