MONUMENT MYLASA: FRANÇOIS FOUQUET'S RECONSTRUCTION OF A ROMAN TOMB IN ANCIENT CARIA

The Monument at Mylasa is a small Roman tomb from the ancient region of Caria, in what is now south-west Turkey, reconstructed in miniature by the French model-maker François Fouquet and acquired by Sir John Soane in 1834 for the Model Room of his London house. Built in the 1st century AD, the original tomb is thought to echo, on a smaller scale, the famous Mausoleum of Halicarnassus nearby — one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World — and survives today, distinctive square corner piers, oval-section columns and all, as one of the best-preserved funerary monuments of the Carian coast.

It belongs to a remarkable collection of twenty plaster models Fouquet made showing ancient buildings "restored" to their original, pristine appearance — a Georgian-era attempt to visualise the ancient world as it once stood, rather than as the ruin it had become.

This model is produced by Chisel & Mouse under licence with Sir John Soane's Museum, and is a faithful reproduction of the original in the Museum's collection.

  • Written by Gavin Paisley, director & model-maker at Chisel & Mouse based in Sussex, England.
  • Last updated: 21-Sep-26

Photograph by Dosseman, licensed under CC A-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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What is the Monument at Mylasa?

The Monument at Mylasa is a Roman tomb built in the 1st century AD at Mylasa, an ancient city in Caria, in the area of modern Milas in south-west Turkey. Mylasa lies not far from ancient Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum), and the tomb is generally understood as a simplified echo of the celebrated Mausoleum of Halicarnassus — the tomb of Mausolus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which stood nearby. The monument survives today, one of the more complete Roman-era tombs of the region, and is sometimes identified with the surviving Gümüşkesen tomb in Milas.

In 1834, Sir John Soane purchased a set of twenty plaster models of ancient monuments, including this one, from the architect Edward Cresy, who had commissioned them from the Parisian model-maker François Fouquet. The Mylasa model has been in the Soane Museum's collection, catalogued as MR15, ever since.

Facts panel

Roman tomb, Mylasa (modern Milas), Caria, Turkey. Model in the Sir John Soane's Museum collection.

  • Original monument built: 1st century AD
  • Location: Mylasa (modern Milas), Caria, Turkey
  • Model-maker: François Fouquet (1787–1870), Paris
  • Model created: c. 1800–1834
  • Acquired by Sir John Soane: 1834, from the architect Edward Cresy
  • Museum number: MR15, Sir John Soane's Museum, London
  • Materials (original monument): Stone, with square corner piers and oval-section columns
  • Architectural character: Simplified echo of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
  • This reproduction: Produced by Chisel & Mouse under licence with Sir John Soane's Museum

The model-maker: François Fouquet and Sir John Soane

François Fouquet (1787–1870) was a Parisian model-maker working in the tradition established by his father, Jean-Pierre Fouquet, who had produced architectural models for the École Polytechnique in Paris. Between roughly 1800 and 1834, François Fouquet made a series of exquisite plaster-of-Paris models reconstructing ancient monuments as they would have looked when new — a striking counterpart to the cork models of the period, which more commonly depicted buildings in their contemporary, ruined state.

In 1834, the architect Sir John Soane — designer of the Bank of England and one of the era's great collectors of architectural knowledge — purchased twenty of these models from the architect Edward Cresy, who had been working in Paris and had acquired them directly. Soane installed them in a new Model Room on the second floor of his house at 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, a space converted from what had previously been his wife's bedroom, where they remain on display today.

Architectural character: echoing a Wonder of the Ancient World

Fouquet's model reconstructs the Mylasa tomb with evident care: distinctive square corner piers and oval-section columns support a heavy, stepped roof, beneath which an unusual octagonal, corbelled interior ceiling is set with decorative lintels. The monument's proportions and detailing closely echo those of the much larger Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, suggesting a deliberate, smaller-scale homage to that lost Wonder of the Ancient World, built for a wealthy citizen of Mylasa rather than a ruler of Caria.

The model itself carries a small but telling detail of its own history: it is inscribed, in pencil, in French, on the first step of its podium, with a scale of one to six feet and the monument's name — Tombeau à Milasa.

Photograph by Dosseman, licensed under CC A-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

History: from Georgian Model Room to modern reproduction

Fouquet's Mylasa model was one of twenty plaster reconstructions Sir John Soane acquired in a single purchase in 1834, buying them from the architect Edward Cresy, who had worked in Paris between 1829 and 1835. Soane displayed the models together in his purpose-built Model Room, using them, alongside a parallel collection of cork models showing the same buildings in their ruined, contemporary state, as teaching aids for his students at the Royal Academy, where he served as Professor of Architecture. Three of Fouquet's models were damaged by bomb blast during an air raid in October 1940; the Mylasa model survived and remains on display, by pre-booked tour, in Soane's Model Room today.

Chisel & Mouse's reproduction, made under licence with Sir John Soane's Museum, extends that same impulse — using modern plaster casting and 3D-printed detailing to bring a faithful copy of Fouquet's nearly two-hundred-year-old model into new collections.

Cultural significance

The Monument at Mylasa sits at an interesting crossing point of history: an ancient Roman tomb, itself already an act of homage to a still older Wonder of the Ancient World, reconstructed nearly two thousand years later by a Georgian-era Frenchman for an English architect's private museum. Soane's Model Room, and Fouquet's work within it, represent an early and remarkably sophisticated attempt to visualise antiquity — not as ruin, but as it once stood — a tradition this reproduction continues.

The model-maker's lens

  • Focus — the whole monument, reproducing Fouquet's original restoration in full: the stepped roof, corner piers, and oval-section columns.
  • Detail — the columns are 3D printed for precision, set against hand-cast plaster, echoing Fouquet's own meticulous original.
  • How it reads at small scale — beautifully; the tomb's clear geometry and modest scale, already reduced once by Fouquet for Soane's Model Room, translate naturally into a tabletop object.
  • How to display — as a set alongside our Palmyra and Temple of Artemis reproductions from the same Soane's Museum collection, or as a standalone piece for anyone drawn to classical antiquity.
  • How we made it — produced under licence with Sir John Soane's Museum, cast in plaster with 3D-printed columns, set on a felt base and displayed under an acrylic case.

View the Monument Mylasa architectural model

Visiting the original

Fouquet's original Mylasa model remains on display in the Model Room at Sir John Soane's Museum, 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London — accessible by pre-booked tour only, given the room's scale and the fragility of its contents. The ancient tomb itself survives in Milas, Turkey, the modern town that has grown around ancient Mylasa.

Frequently asked questions about the Monument at Mylasa

Who made the Monument at Mylasa model?

The original plaster model was made by the French model-maker François Fouquet (1787–1870), one of twenty models purchased by Sir John Soane in 1834.

What is the Monument at Mylasa?

It is a Roman tomb built in the 1st century AD at Mylasa, in ancient Caria (modern Milas, Turkey), thought to be a smaller-scale echo of the nearby Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Is this an original Fouquet model?

No. Chisel & Mouse's model is a faithful reproduction, made under licence with Sir John Soane's Museum. The original, dating from around 1800–1834, remains in the Museum's Model Room in London.

Why did Sir John Soane collect these models?

Soane, an architect and Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy, used Fouquet's models as teaching aids to show his students how ruined ancient buildings would have looked when new, displaying them alongside a parallel collection of cork models showing the same monuments in their contemporary, ruined state.

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