Statue of Artemis 1st century AD
The lofty walls of Babylon with its chariot roads and the statue of Zeus beside the river Alphaeus and the hanging gardens and the colossus of the sun and the toil of the high pyramids and the vast tomb of Mausolus but when I saw the house of Artemis rising in the clouds other wonders The Temple of Artemis was located near the ancient city of Ephesus about 75 kilometres south of the present-day port city of Izmir in Turkey now on the edge of the present-day city of Selcuk The reconstruction of this temple in its grandeur began about 550 BC under the direction of the Cretan architects Chersifron and Metagenes The oldest temple the Bronze Age Temenos was built many years before the Ionic migration Callimachus in his hymn to Artemis says that it was built for the Amazons in the 7th century BC
The temple was destroyed by a flood The Temple of Artemis or Artemision also known as the Temple of Diana was a Greek temple Dedicated to the local goddess Artemis in the 7th century BC a flood destroyed the temple depositing more than half a meter 30 ft of sand and debris on the original clay soil Flood debris includes ivory tablets carvings griffins and the Tree of Life apparently from northern Syria The new temple was sponsored at least in part by Croesus founder of the kingdom of Lydia and ruler of Ephesus.
Artemis - Greek Mythology
It was designed and built around 550 BC by Cree architects It is believed to be the first Greek temple built of marble The outer columns were about 13 meters (40 ft) high and were arranged in two rows forming a wide ceremonial corridor around them The additional columns of the later temple of which some still survive illustration below were modified from this earlier style Pliny the Elder apparently unaware of the continuity of this ancient sanctuary said that the rich foundation deposits from this period also known as the "Artemis deposits" yielded more than a thousand items The temple became a major tourist attraction visited by merchants kings and tourists many of whom worshipped Artemis in the form of jewelry and goods The temple was also a sacred site for the House of Artemis
