Begun c. 550 BCE, the marble temple would take 120 years to complete, & like its predecessors, it was dedicated to Artemis & so was sometimes referred to as the Artemisium. Ephesus (or Ephesos) was a Greek colony on the eastern coast of Asia Minor founded in the 8th century BCE, although there had been Greek settlers in the area from c. 1200 BCE. Today all that remains of the temple are its foundations, and a single column has been erected from composite remains which, rather than giving an impression of lost grandeur, gives a melancholic air to the site which was once one of the most wondrous in the ancient Mediterranean. Once again rebuilt, in 401 CE it was torn down for the last time by a Christian mob. In addition, the new version was placed on a higher base to make the temple more imposing. Greek travel writer Pausanias, who lived in the second century A.D., tells why it was so wonderful. An interesting archaeological find at the site was a column drum carrying the inscription 'dedicated by Croesus'. Ephesus is an ancient city on the coast of Ionia, in the Selçuk area of İzmir Province, Turkey and is one of the seven ancient wonders of the world! Pliny the Elder described the temple as “the most wonderful monument of Græcian magnificence”. Ephesus continued to be an important city into Roman times and was made capital of the Roman province of Asia after 129 BCE. Ancient History Encyclopedia. This the priests of Ephesus were unwilling to permit, and they politely rejected his offer by saying that it was not fitting for one god to build a temple to another. PICTURE #2: WEEDING – A.D. 54-56. He holds an MA in Political Philosophy and is the Publishing Director at AHE. This first glimpse is of sprouts just cracking open the ground. After Ephesus City was invaded by Goths in 263 AD and they destroyed both the city and the Temple of Artemis. Excavations at the site in 1870 CE did indeed reveal that the foundations of the temple were composed of layers of a soft mortar substance and charcoal. It had 127 columns which were 18.3 metres (60 ft) high and 1.2 metres (4 ft) in diameter. The architrave blocks above the columns are estimated to have weighed 24 tons each, and the feat of engineering that put them in place led to the Ephesians believing it was the work of Artemis herself. Given its prominence, it was not surprising that a number of Jews resided in the city. It was thought to have been founded by the Amazons about 2000 B.C. Much of Ephesus’s ancient history is unrecorded and sketchy. The Greek goddess Artemis (Diana to the Romans) was particularly important to the Ephesians, indeed her birthplace was considered by them as nearby Ortygia (for other Greeks it was Delos). The large theater among the ruins of ancient Ephesus (photo by David Treybig). The decorative frieze of the temple carried scenes involving Amazons, who were, in Greek mythology, supposed to have sought shelter at Ephesus from Hercules. A big part of the city was rebuilt by Constantine I. Nevertheless, a treatise on the temple written in the mid-6th century BCE is attributed to Chersiphron and Metagenes. In Roman times a sea channel was maintained with difficulty to a harbour well west of Pion. It was found in 1869 CE by John Turtle Wood. It was built in the 10th century BC. Cartwright, M. (2018, July 26). The Ephesians refused the offer, one unnamed man declaring that it was not correct for one god to present gifts to another god, and instead, the Ephesians paid for it themselves by having a collection of the citizens' personal jewellery. Ephesus, on the western coast of Asia Minor, was home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world: The Artemision or temple of Artemis and its statue. Web. With your help we create free content that helps millions of people learn history all around the world. Patmos was only a day's sail from Ephesus; and it is by no means improbable that the gorgeous description of the merchandise of "Babylon" (Revelation 18:12, 13) is derived from St. John's own recollections of Ephesus. Column Drum from the Temple of Artemis, Ephesus, by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin (CC BY-NC-SA). Pliny also notes that alternate layers of sheepskins and packed charcoal were used to provide the necessary stability to support the massive weight of the structures about to be built on top. Indeed, the Temple of Artemis was often cited as the greatest of the seven wonders by those who had seen them. Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/Temple_of_Artemis_at_Ephesus/. According to the Greek writer Plutarch (c. 45-125 CE) in his biography of Alexander the Great, the great Macedonian leader was born on the very same day that the Temple of Artemis burnt down, around 21 July 356 BCE (the 6th day of Hecatombaeon). Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Paul Jordan, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. We have also been recommended for educational use by the following publications: Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Canada. Cartwright, Mark. A building dedicated to religious ceremonies or worship. Like most temples to the goddess in the Greek world, it was located a short distance from the city as Artemis was thought to preside over boundaries (physical or otherwise), wild vegetation, animals, and nature in general. Ancient History Encyclopedia Limited is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Written by Mark Cartwright, published on 26 July 2018 under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Ephesus, once, the trade centre of the ancient world, a religious centre of the early Christianity and today, Ephesus is an important tourism centre in Turkey.Â. Although subsequently rebuilt or restored, a Christian mob, inspired by the decree of Roman emperor Theodosius I (r. 379-395 CE) against pagan practices in 393 CE, definitively destroyed the temple in 401 CE. Layers of marble chips and charcoal have also been discovered in 20th century CE excavations, but neither explorations have found evidence of sheepskins. c. Judaism A synagogue, especially of a Reform congregation. The goddess' cult at Ephesus included eastern elements (borrowed from goddesses such as Isis, Cybele, and the “Mistress of the Animals”), as did her representation in art, with surviving statues, unlike elsewhere in Greece, being covered in eggs as symbols of her role as a fertility goddess. Ephesus, in the Roman province of Asia, is 56 kilometers (35 miles) from Smyrna. In 614 AD the city was destroyed again due to an earthquake. The Ancient History Encyclopedia logo is a registered EU trademark. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. Ephesus, now Selçuk in modern Turkey, was one of the most famous cities of the ancient Mediterranean. The Lydian king Croesus (r. 560-546 BCE) conquered Ephesus between 560 and 550 BCE, and then funded the construction of new buildings, including a great new temple to Artemis or, as the Greek historian Herodotus put it, he “dedicated many columns” (Histories, 1.92). Last modified July 26, 2018. Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation is a non-profit organization. It was world famous for its large temple to the pagan goddess Diana (in the New Testament, Diana's name is a translation of the Greek word Artemis). The city had an up and down relationship with the neighbouring kingdom of Lydia, resisting many attacks but at the same absorbing some cultural elements. The wealthy Ephesians themselves undertook its reconstruction, and 220 years passed before its final completion. Pliny the Elder described the temple as “the most wonderful monument of Græcian magnificence” (Natural History, 36.97). "Temple of Artemis at Ephesus." The Temple of Artemis was not forgotten, and a tradition sprang up in medieval times that some of the columns of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople were looted from it, but the noted Byzantine specialist Cyril Mango points out that this idea is absurd. The oldest artefacts, typically votive offerings made of precious metals, date to the 7th century BCE. The Church of Ephesus was founded by St. Paul, about A.D. , and his Epistle to that and other Churches, now called simply "to the Ephesians," was written about A.D. . There had already been several versions of the temple over the centuries at Ephesus, and Herodotus describes the Ephesians tying a rope 1243 metres (4081 ft) long between the old temple and the city in a desperate and as it turned out futile hope that their dedication of the entire city to Artemis would save them from the Lydians. Like all the ancient wonders except the Egyptian pyramid, the Artemision is gone, leaving only rubble and a tall column. It was famous for possessing a Temple dedicated to a pagan goddess named Diana. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus located on the western coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) was built in the 6th century BCE, and such was its tremendous size, double the dimensions of other Greek temples including the Parthenon, that it was soon regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Several capital and column pieces have been discovered from the 6th-century CE version of the temple, while one of the best finds was a magnificently carved column drum from the Hellenistic version. The magnificent new Ionic temple was supervised by, according to the 1st-century CE Roman writer Pliny the Elder, the master architect Chersiphron of Knossos while Strabo, the Greek geographer (c. 64 BCE - c. 24 CE), reports that credit should go to both Chersiphron and his son Metagenes. Ancient History Encyclopedia. 09 Feb 2021. Seven such monuments became the original 'bucket list' when ancient writers such as Herodotus, Callimachus of Cyrene, Antipater of Sidon, and Philo of Byzantium compiled shortlists of the most wonderful sights of the ancient world. It was the Athenians who initially colonized the city, which is located near the mouth of the Cayster river (and opposite the island of Samos). The mythical founder of the city was a prince of Athens named Androklos, who had to leave his country after the death of his father, King Kodros. Ephesus, the first church mentioned in the messages to the seven churches of Revelation, served as the center for John’s ministry at the end of the first century. In the 4th century BCE, the temple partially funded by Croesus was destroyed by a fire deliberately started by a man called Herostratus, who became one of history's most infamous arsonists, his sole ambition in committing the crime. However, both figures may have actually lived in the 8th century BCE and so been involved in the very first version of the temple. For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. The Temple of Artemis is known as one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Some of the monuments of the ancient world so impressed visitors from far and wide with their beauty, artistic and architectural ambition, and sheer scale that their reputation grew as must-see (themata) sights for the ancient traveller and pilgrim.