While the Temple of Artemis lies in ruins today, it was once one of the largest and most opulent Greek temples, earning it a spot as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Miniatürk ParkA modern reconstruction of the Temple of Artemis.
The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Türkiye is nothing more than ruins today. But in its heyday, it was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The first Greek temple ever to be constructed entirely out of marble, this structure boasted 127 columns, ornate statues, gold and silver ornaments, and elaborate reliefs. At about 350 feet long and 180 feet wide, it was also among the largest Greek temples ever built — double the size of the Parthenon.
“I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon… and the hanging gardens, and the colossus of the Sun, and the huge labor of the high pyramids,” wrote Antipater of Sidon, a 2nd century B.C.E. Greek poet, according to a University of Chicago report. “But when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy.”
So how did this ancient wonder end up in ruins?
The Cult Of Artemis, The Goddess Worshipped At Ephesus
According to ancient legend, the Greek colony of Ephesus in modern-day Türkiye was founded by the powerful women warriors known as the Amazons. Some say that the Amazons also built the city’s famous temple.
For centuries, the Ionian city was home to a cult of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and chastity, whom the Ephesians believed was born nearby. While Artemis is widely considered a Greek goddess today, her cult borrowed elements from the Egyptian goddess Isis as well as Anatolian mother goddesses.
Ephesus Archaeological MuseumStatues of Artemis that stood in the temple portrayed her as a fertility goddess.
At some point during the Bronze Age, the Ephesian cult built a temple dedicated to Artemis. This initial structure was not fated to last, however; a flood destroyed it in the 7th century B.C.E.
Afterward, the Ephesians built a new and improved Temple of Artemis around 550 B.C.E. The project took an estimated 120 to 200 years to complete — and would earn the marble temple its place as an Ancient Wonder of the World.
A Wonder Of The World At Ephesus
To ensure that the new temple would endure through the ages, its architects packed charcoal beneath its foundation. They also chose to build it on marshy land, which they hoped would protect it from earthquakes.
According to Pliny the Elder, the temple boasted 127 columns that stood 60 feet high, dozens of which were carved with elaborate reliefs. The structure was lavishly decorated with vibrant paintings, gold and silver adornments, and friezes depicting the Amazons. At the center of the temple, a statue of Artemis stood watch. Other statues recovered from the temple’s ruins show the goddess to be adorned with symbols of fertility.
This massive structure was a wonder to behold. In fact, when the Lydians and later the Persians conquered Ephesus, they, too, began worshiping at the opulent temple.
Istanbul Bilgi UniversityA 2022 reconstruction of the temple imagines the bright colors that might have appeared on it.
However, disaster struck in 356 B.C.E., when an arsonist set fire to the temple, eager to memorialize his name in history with his crime. The fire caused immense damage to the building. According to legend, Alexander the Great was born that very night — and some have suggested that Artemis was unable to save her temple because the goddess had been busy overseeing the birth of the future king.
About 20 years later, that very king rode into Ephesus and liberated the city from the Persians. Alexander the Great then reportedly offered to pay for the reconstruction of the Temple of Artemis, but the Ephesians declined, saying “it was inappropriate for a god to dedicate offerings to gods.” The Ephesians ultimately rebuilt the temple on their own, roughly following its original design.
After Rome roared to power and conquered Greece in the 2nd century B.C.E., the great empire turned Ephesus into the capital of the Roman Province of Asia, marking a new chapter in the history of the Temple of Artemis.
Wikimedia CommonsThe Ephesians constructed their temple on marshy ground to protect its marble columns from earthquakes.
The Dramatic Fall Of The Temple Of Artemis
The Temple Of Artemis stood for centuries before it crumbled yet again. In the 3rd century C.E., invading Goths swept through Rome’s provinces, destroying ancient monuments. When they reached Ephesus, they plundered the temple, leaving it a burned husk.
Ephesus rebuilt the temple after this attack. But the new structure wouldn’t last long. In the late 4th century C.E., the Roman Empire declared Christianity its official religion — and in 393, Emperor Theodosius I banned pagan rituals altogether. Inspired by their emperor, a Christian mob destroyed the Temple of Artemis in 401 C.E. This time, no one would rebuild the ancient wonder.
The temple’s crumbling ruins slowly sank below the ground as they collected silt from a series of river floods. Meanwhile, some of its pieces were looted and reused in the construction of other buildings. In fact, it was rumored that the temple’s massive marble columns were repurposed to build the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, though this rumor was never proven.
For centuries, the temple lay forgotten. Then, the Renaissance revived enthusiasm for the pagan gods of the ancient world — and for the classical monuments constructed by the ancient Greeks and Romans. European artists tried to capture the Temple of Artemis’ ancient glory in woodcuts and paint, referring to ancient descriptions of the magnificent temple. But the real temple’s exact location was lost to time.
Los Angeles County Museum of ArtA 17th-century etching imagining what the Temple of Artemis might have looked like during the Roman era.
The Ancient Wonder Is Recovered At Ephesus
Tales of the otherworldly majesty of the Temple of Artemis circulated for centuries. But no one knew where its ruins might be.
Then, in the 1860s, archaeologists from the British Museum set out in search of the lost wonder. After six years of digging, a team led by John Turtle Wood finally struck gold in 1869: The temple lay 20 feet underground.
The British Museum purchased the land and continued to excavate the site, dredging up a number of priceless artifacts. Most notably, excavators uncovered an 11-ton carved column and hauled it all the way to London. Many relics recovered from the temple’s grounds are on display at the British Museum today, including marble statue heads, gold ornaments dedicated to the goddess, and a handful of the oldest coins in history.
Wikimedia CommonsA single column now stands at the site of the Temple of Artemis.
The dig also uncovered several drums, left scattered in the marshy land, that had once made up the columns of the temple. In 1972, someone stacked these drums to recreate a single column, marking the site of this once-magnificent world wonder.
The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was just one of Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Next, read about the statue of Zeus at Olympia, another ancient wonder. Then, discover the astonishing history of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.
