 The
temple of Artemision
is known as one of the Seven Wonders
of the Antic world. It has been built in the areas of
Ephesus on a flat area which has over the centuries
turned into a swamp. Today one can only see the ruins of the foundations of this
marvelous construction of the Hellenistic Age, entirely made of marble and full
of sculptured columns' capitals and shafts. The most beautiful remaining of this
temple are today exhibited in the
London British Museum.
The oldest remaining found date back till the VIth century
BC. It was surrounded by 36 huge columns, later enlarged upon the orders of the
Lydian King, Kreisos, during the VIth century BC. Most of the exhibits in the
London British Museum belong to this period.
 The
new Artemision
has been rebuilt in the IInd century BC. Located on top of
the previous one, it had tremendous dimensions: 125 columns of each 17,5 meters
high. Unfortunately this one has also been destroyed by fire, reconstructed and
again demolished by earthquakes, rebuilt and at last looted by Goths one year
later.
The statue of many-breasted
Artemision was the symbol of the temple
but also of abundance, hunting and wild life. The genuine statue of
Artemision, removed during the fire, is today exhibited in the
Selcuk Museum. Many copies of this statue found during the latest
excavations date back from the Roman period.
Aphrodisias
was changed to
Stayropolis then to Caria which became Geyre years after. The ruins which are
worth seein in Aphrodisias
are listed below:
When
the Greeks first arrive under the
leadership of Androklos, Kybele (Rhea) was the major deity in all of Anatolia (the
Asian part of Turkey). The Greeks introduced the worship of Artemis. Artemis and
Kybele eventually became the same goddess. Artemis is the goddess of hunting,
wild animals, childbirth, and nature.
According to the famous historian Strabon, the Temple of Artemis was built and
destroyed seven times. It was always rebuilt on the same site. Some of the
different architects were Theodoros from Samos, Chersiphon and his son Metagenes
from Knossos of Crete, and Dinocrates.
The temple foundations date back to the 7th century BCE. At first, it was a
small shrine to Kybele. In around 550 BCE Cretan Chersiphron, a Greek architect,
designed the final temple. This initial building was sponsored by the Lydian
king Croesus |
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Artemis Temple
