Characteristics

• Built by Croesus (last king of Lydia)
• City had been founded thousands of years before by Amazons (race of woman warriors)
• Made in honor of the goddess of the moon and protector of animals and young girls (Greeks called her Artemis; Romans called her Diana)
• Made of limestone and marble
• Supported by 120 marble columns (each 66 ft high)
• Statue of Artemis in middle of temple
• All that is left is a few foundation blocks and a single rebuilt column

Technology

• Temple designed by Charsiphron and Matagenes, his son
• The temple was finished in about 550 BCE
• After being burned on July 21, 356 BCE, the temple was restored
• Fire started by Herostratus, who wanted to be famous
• Burned the same day Alexander the Great was born
• Years later Alexander called for temple to be rebuilt on same site
• In the 262 CE, temple was plundered by Goths and later swamped by floods
• Again it was restored
• Finally, in 410 CE, the temple was torn down for ever

Wonder Qualities

• The temple's amazing beauty was unmatched
• Antipater of Sidon explained, "But when I saw the sacred house of Artemis that towers to the clouds, the [other Wonders] were placed in the shade, for the Sun himself has never looked upon its equal outside Olympus." (ce.eng.usf.edu)
• Philon of Byzantium wrote, "I have seen the walls and Hanging Gardens of ancient Babylon, the statue of Olympian Zeus, the Colossus of Rhodes, the mighty work of the high Pyramids and the tomb of Mausolus. But when I saw the temple at Ephesus rising to the clouds, all these other wonders were put in the shade." (www.unmuseum.org/ephesus)
• The entire temple was created almost completely out of marble
• The only thing not marble were the tiles on the roof