The Temple of Diana, often referred to as the Temple of Artemis or Artemisi

Heritage Places, Castles & Architecture

Click on Images for Information

(#CommissionsEarned)

Shades of Current Image

(#CommissionsEarned)

Current Root

@Heritage Places, Castles & Architecture
10-Nov-2025 06 am

The Temple of Diana, often referred to as the Temple of Artemis or Artemision, was a Greek temple devoted to a prehistoric, regional form of the goddess Artemis. It could be found in Ephesus. The Ionic immigration occurred several years after the earliest iteration of the temple, a Bronze Age temenos. About 550 BC, Chersiphron and his son Metagenes, a Cretan architect, began to rebuild it in a grander style. Croesus of Lydia provided the funding, and it took ten years to finish the project. An arsonist destroyed this rendition of the temple in 356 BC. According to the list of Antipater of Sidon, the Seven Wonders of the World, the next, greatest, and last iteration of the temple was financed by the Ephesians themselves. It is thought to be older than the Didyma oracular shrine to Apollo. Leleges and Lydians are thought to have lived in the city prior to the Ionic period. The first temenos at Ephesus was credited by the ancient Greek poet and scholar Callimachus to the Amazons, legendary warrior-women whose religious practises, in his imagination, already revolved on an image or bretas of Artemis, their matron goddess. According to Pausanias, the temple existed even before the Amazons. The peripteral temple at Ephesus is the earliest example of its kind on coast of Asia Minor and may be the oldest Greek temple ever to be encircled by colonnades. A flood in the seventh century BC wrecked the temple and covered the original clay floor with more than half a metre of sand and flotsam. The remains of an ivory plaque depicting a griffin and the Tree of Life, as well as few drilled tear-shaped amber drops, were found among the flood wreckage. Croesus, who established empire of Lydia and ruled Ephesus, was at least partially responsible for funding the construction of the second great temple. It began to be planned and built in 550 BC. The temple burned down in 356 BC. According to a number of traditions, Herostratus committed this heinous crime of arson in an effort to gain glory at all costs. This is how the term — Herostratic Fame — came to be used to define his desire for recognition. The Ephesians condemned the offender to death for this crime and barred anybody from mentioning his name ever. According to Greek and Roman legacy, Alexander the Great was born about the time the temple was destroyed. Plutarch says that Goddess Artemis was too busy with birth of Alexander to put out the fire in her temple, but he does not say what caused it. The Ephesians politely declined offer of Alexander to pay for the reconstruction of the temple, arguing that it would be wrong for one god to construct a temple for another, and they ultimately reconstructed it after his death at their own expense. Construction began around 323 BC and lasted for a long time. The third temple, which was 450 feet long, 225 feet wide, and 60 feet high with more than 127 columns, was bigger than the second temple. In early Christian records of Ephesus, this new restoration is mentioned several times and had endured for 600 years. The Temple was eventually demolished or destroyed by 401 AD. #History #Architecture

This article uses text information from the Wikipedia article -- Temple_of_Artemis -- [Wikipedia-Article-Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Artemis ] which is released under the -- Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License – [License-Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_4.0_International_License )] [List of Principal Authors (5 or less) of the Wikipedia-Article on the date of this Article being Created in this Website: - Haploidavey, Wetman, 12.75.128.46, 166.205.91.18, Dinoguy2] [Use the following Authorship tool to find out the author contributions:- https://xtools.wmcloud.org/authorship ] [The Current Article on this Website has been paraphrased from the above linked corresponding Wikipedia-Article and You may redistribute this, verbatim or modified, provided that you comply with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License] [License-Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_4.0_International_License )]

This article also uses an image from the Wikipedia article -- Maarten_van_Heemskerck -- [Wikipedia-Article-Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maarten_van_Heemskerck ] [Image: From the 1572 Octo Mundi Miracula, the earliest known representation of the temple in modern times. The hand-colored engraving was by Martin Heemskerck.] [Wikipedia-Image-Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Temple_of_Artemis.jpg ] [The Work (Image) is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of author plus 100 years or fewer. The Work is believed to be in Public Domain in the United States as well.] [Please Also Relate to Original Individual Text and Image URLs for More Usage Property and Sharing, Remixing or Attributing the Contents]
[Contents on Wikipedia is covered by – Disclaimer – Wikipedia-Disclaimer-Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:General_disclaimer ] [Contents in this Website is also covered by Disclaimer linked at the bottom of the Page] [This website article means no intellectual appropriation by any way and only wishes to contribute in sharing of knowledge]