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The Artemis Temple or Artemision
was one of the Seven Wonders of the World and located in Ephesus.
Throughout the excavations in Ephesus, the actual location of the
temple was presumed in different places. Its ancient cult dedicated to
Artemis was famous in antiquity and made ancient Ephesus a much-visited
pilgrimage place. Each year one month was considered a holiday and set
aside for the religious ceremonious observations.The first temple was
built in the 6C BC and was Ionic dipteros with two rows of columns on
both sides and three rows in the front and rear. There were totally 127
Ionic columns with a height of 19 m / 62 ft each. 36 of columns were
bearing sculptures in relief. In 356 BC a madman known as Herostratus
set fire to the temple in order to make his name immortal. On the same
night in Macedonia Alexander the Great was born. Later when he came to
Anatolia he offered to make an endowment for the temple on the condition
That his name should be associated with it. However his offer was
refused with a polite and tactful answer; "it was unseemly for one god
to build a temple for another"
The second temple was built in the 4C BC on the same ground plan but
this time being on a base with 13 steps. The fact That the temple faced
West while Greek temples faced East as a rule is some proof of it being
of Anatolian origin. This is the same in the temples of Sardis and
Magnesia on Meander. The columns were shorter and more slender. The
famous sculptor Scopas made the column reliefs while the relief on the
altar was of Praxiteles. In the beginning of the 5C AD the temple was
destroyed by a fanatical mob which was regarded as the final triumph of
Christianity over paganism. Out of the magnificent temple only one of
the 127 Ionic columns and foundation stones can be seen today. This was
erected in 1972-3 out of different pieces of different columns without
reaching its original height.
There was an archaic Processional Road stretching to the
Artemis Temple around the Panayir Dagi (Mount Pion) through the
Magnesian Gate. This was the route of the ancient processions which was
flanked along its whole length with graves. Library Square was an
important stopping point on the processional route in archaic times. The
stretch from the Magnesian Gate to the Artemis Temple on the
processional route was roofed over in the 2-3C AD by T. Flavius Damianus,
a rich Ephesian and sophist. This was called Stoa of Damianus.
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