Temple of Artemis
Efes - Ephesus

1100 A.D.: A troop of Crusaders stops at a muddy little village in Asia Minor. Their leader looks around. Confused ,he dismounts. This place is not what he expected. He read in the ancient texts that this was a large seaport with many ships docked in its bay. It isn't. The sea is almost three miles away. The village is located in a swamp. There are no ships. The leader stops a nearby man.

"Sir, is this the city of Ephesus?"

"It was called that once. Now it is named Ayasalouk."

"Well, where is your bay? Where are the trading ships? And where is the magnificent Greek temple that we have heard about?"

Now it is the man's turn to be confused. "Temple? What temple, Sir? We have no temple here..."

A visit to Efes (Ephesus) - once the commercial center of the ancient world - is a highlight of any visit to Turkey. The city, whose wealth and patronage supported its splendid architectural program, was dedicated to the goddess Artemis. Her enormous temple, once considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and rebuilt several times, dates in its latest form from the third century B.C. The Ephesus ruins also include a theater, gymnasium, agora and baths, as well as the Library of Celsus. The nearby town of Selcuk is dominated by a Byzantine citadel which stands close to the 6th century Basilica of St. John built on the site of the Apostle's tomb.

The Selcuk Archaeological Museum houses an impressive collection of statues, including two of  Artemis, and other finds recovered during the excavations of Ephesus. A special exhibit offers a wonderful exposè on Gladiators. It requires some reading, but offers fascinating information about the lives and deaths of the Gladiators who fought in this land. The Ephesus International Festival is held annually in May.

It is recorded that St. John brought the Virgin Mary to Ephesus after the death of Christ and that she spent her last days in a small house (Meryemana Evi) built for her on Bulbuldagi (Mt. Koressos). Now a popular place of pilgrimage for Christians and Muslims the house has received the official sanction of the Vatican, and Christians observe a commemoration ceremony every year on August 15th. Near Selcuk in Camlik is a TCDD Open-air Steam Locomotives Museum. 9 km east of Selcuk is Sirince, known for its traditional 19th-century village houses, some of which have been converted into guest-houses. Wine is produced in this small hillside Turkish village, which itself resembles an open-air museum. 18 km from Selcuk are wine-houses, for tasting the wines.

So what happened to the great Temple of Artemis? And what happened to the city that hosted it? What turned Ephesus from a busy port of trade to a few shacks in a swamp?

The first shrine to the Goddess Artemis was probably built around 800 B.C. on a marshy strip near the river at Ephesus. The Ephesus Goddess Artemis, sometimes called Diana, is not the same figure as the Artemis worshiped in Greece. The Greek Artemis is the goddess of the hunt. The Ephesus Artemis was a goddess of fertility and was often pictured as draped with eggs, or multiple breasts, symbols of fertility, from her waist to her shoulders.

That earliest temple contained a sacred stone, probably a meteorite, that had "fallen from Jupiter." The shrine was destroyed and rebuilt several times over the next few hundred years. By 600 B.C., the city of Ephesus had become a major port of trade and an architect named Chersiphron was engaged to build a new large temple. He designed it with high stone columns. Concerned that carts carrying the columns might get mired in the swampy ground around the site, Chersiphron laid the columns on their sides and had them rolled to where they would be erected.

This temple didn't last long. In 550 B.C. King Croesus of Lydia conquered Ephesus and the other Greek cities of Asia Minor. During the fighting, the temple was destroyed. Croesus proved himself a gracious winner, though, by contributing generously to the building of a new temple.

This was next to the last of the great temples to Artemis in Ephesus and it dwarfed those that had come before. The architect is thought to be a man named Theodorus. Theodorus's temple was 300 feet in length and 150 feet wide with an area four times the size of the temple before it. More than one hundred stone columns supported a massive roof. The new temple was the pride of Ephesus until 356 B.C. when a tragedy, by name of Herostratus, struck.

Herostratus was a young Ephesian who would stop at no cost to have his name go down in history. He managed this by burning the temple to the ground. The citizens of Ephesus were so appalled at this act they issued a decree that anyone who spoke of Herostratus would be put to death.

Shortly after this horrible deed, a new temple was commissioned. The architect was Scopas of Paros, one of the most famous sculptors of his day. Ephesus was one of the greatest cities in Asia Minor at this point and no expense was spared in the construction. According to Pliny the Elder, a Roman historian, the temple was a "wonderful monument of Grecian magnificence, and one that merits our genuine admiration."

The temple was built in the same marshy place as before. To prepare the ground, Pliny recorded that "layers of trodden charcoal were placed beneath, with fleeces covered with wool upon the top of them."  

A copy of this information is available onboard the Gundogan for your convenience.