Belevi

About 15km/9mi northeast of Ephesus, not far from where the road branches off to Tire near the village of Belevi, are a burial mound (tumulus) and the remains of a monumental structure, evidently unfinished, reminiscent of the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos. Belevi, possibly dating from the fourth century B.C. (perhaps Persian), is believed to be the Bonita of antiquity. The tumulus, encircled by a wall of masonry, contains two burial chambers, reached by means of a passageway 20m/65ft long. The burial chambers themselves are carved out of the rock from above. The mausoleum consists of a central burial chamber originally embellished with a sixteen-column peristasis on a three-tiered base (crepidoma). Winged lions and horses adorned the