The Temple of Artemis

Welcome to a site of both immense glory and profound loss. You are standing on the grounds of the Artemision—the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. …

To understand the magnificence of this temple, we must first understand the goddess who inhabited it. The 'Artemis of the Ephesians' was not the svelte, youthful huntress common in classical Greek art. …

While the site had been sacred since the 8th century BC, it was the Lydian King Croesus, famous for his proverbial wealth, who financed the first truly monumental temple here around 550 BC. This was a revolutionary structure—the…

In 356 BC, a man named Herostratus, driven by a pathological desire for eternal fame, set fire to the wooden roof of the temple. The resulting inferno was so intense that it cracked the marble columns and brought the entire…

The final version of the temple, the one that truly earned its place as a Wonder of the World, was built on a massive platform raised thirteen steps above the flood-prone ground. This structure was a triumph of the Hellenistic…

By the 19th century, the location of the Temple of Artemis had been completely lost. Silt from the river and centuries of neglect had buried the ruins under twenty-five feet of mud. …

As you walk around the site today, your eyes are naturally drawn to the single, incomplete column that stands sentinel over the ruins. Re-erected in 1973 by the Austrian Archaeological Institute, this column is a 'composite'—it…

As we conclude our visit to the Temple of Artemis, take a moment to absorb the silence of this sacred marsh. We have traced the history of this site from its origins as a forest sanctuary for an Anatolian goddess to its heights…