Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
-There was actually more than one Temple of Artemis: A series of several altars and temples was destroyed and then restored on the same site in Ephesus, a Greek port city on the west coast of modern-day Turkey.
-The most fabulous of these structures were two marble temples built around 550 B.C. and 350 B.C., respectively. -The former was designed by the Cretan architect and his son and decorated by some of the most celebrated artists of the ancient world. -The building burned on July 21, 356 B.C., according to legend the same night that Alexander the Great was born. -About six years later, the building of a new temple to replace it was begun. -The new building was surrounded by marble steps that led to a more than 400-foot-long terrace. -Inside stood 127 60-foot marble columns and a statue of Artemis: goddess of the hunt. -The temple was largely destroyed by Ostrogoths in A.D. 262, and it was not until the 1860s that archeologists dug up the first of the ruins of the temple’s columns at the bottom of the Cayster River. |