Following are the recontructed pictures of the Temple of Diana (Artemis)
In 1868, John T. Wood, a British rail-road engineer came to Turkey (Ottoman Empire by then) to build the first rail-road in this country. When he was working to build the rail-road, he came across with the remains of Temple of Artemis. He, then, automatically changed his profession into an archaeologist and carried out the excavations on the site for eleven years, naturally, shipped the findings out to the British Museum in London, England. Later, some more remains of the temple were shipped to the Archaeological Museum in Vienna, Austria.
There were several temples built for this goddess but they were destroyed by fires and earthquakes. When we come to the 4th centry BC, there was a man called Herastratus, who wanted to put his name into history which he succeded alright, burned the temple down. The reason the temple was burned was that the goddess was not in the temple but, instead, she was ready during the birth of Alexander the Great in Macedonia and could not protect the temple.
About 20 years later, during his fast expedition, he stopped by Ephesus area, having bad feelings and feeling guilty about the incident, Alexander the Great offered Ephesians to support all the funds for a new temple for the goddess but he wanted a dedication to be made on his name in the temple. Ephesians, politely refused him by saying, "A god cannot make a dedication to another one." This way, they raised his pride up and convinced him to give up on this project. After Alexander left the area to continue his expedition, Ephesians collected tremendous amount of treasure amongst themselves and built a new temple for the goddess which became one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.
It became one of the 7 wonders of the world because it was...
a) ...the largest temple built so far until then;
b) ...completely constructed out of marble;
c) ...surrounded by 127 Ionic columns and capitals.
d) ...There was a huge statue of the goddess in the temple, which was to be carried out to the coast (this one is not existing at the moment) - which was not too far away from the temple - for washing, cleaning and decorating during the festivals of Artemis; and
e) ...In the temple, they had virgin girls, who were called the Vestal Virgins, to serve the temple until the age 40, and, after that age, they were granted the permission to leave the temple and marry any man they wanted and the man chosen had to comply with the terms of the girls. Around here, we have a saying which goes like, "The life starts at the age of 40", we think, comes from this occasion.
It became one of the 7 wonders of the world because it was...
a) ...the largest temple built so far until then;
b) ...completely constructed out of marble;
c) ...surrounded by 127 Ionic columns and capitals.
d) ...There was a huge statue of the goddess in the temple, which was to be carried out to the coast (this one is not existing at the moment) - which was not too far away from the temple - for washing, cleaning and decorating during the festivals of Artemis; and
e) ...In the temple, they had virgin girls, who were called the Vestal Virgins, to serve the temple until the age 40, and, after that age, they were granted the permission to leave the temple and marry any man they wanted and the man chosen had to comply with the terms of the girls. Around here, we have a saying which goes like, "The life starts at the age of 40", we think, comes from this occasion.
