Why the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus is known as a wonder of the world

Ephesus was located in the coastal region of Lydia in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), and it was one of the major cities of the Ionians (a branch of the ancient Greeks) in Asia Minor. In the 8th-6th centuries B.C., the Ephesian slave economy developed. From the 8th century BC onwards, it was the center of the Greek worship of Artemis.

Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leda. She is a goddess of the moon, a god of lakes and springs, a goddess of women's life, and a god of hunting. The ancient Romans called Artemis Diana, so the temple of the moon in Ephesus was called both the Temple of Artemis and the Temple of Diana.

From the 7th century BC onwards, Ephesus built a series of temples. At that time, the construction of temples was the most important place in the country. This is because the temples in Greece are closely related to religious and commercial activities, and people often hold grand festivals and celebrations in the temples.

Therefore, in the ancient Greeks' concept, the grandeur of the temple building was a symbol of civic unity and the strength of the city-state, and the ornate decoration of the temple was a sign of the wealth of the city-state. Artemis Temple was built in the middle of the 6th century BC. It is recorded that it took a total of 120 years to build the temple at that time.

It is the most ambitious of all the temple buildings in ancient Greece, covering an area of 5,814 square meters, only slightly smaller than the temple of Zeus in Agregant in Sicily and larger than all the other Greek temples. What really gave the temple a high reputation was its colonnaded architecture. This kind of building can be divided into seven types according to its arrangement, of which the double-story cylindrical building has the most columns.

The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus is one of these double-tiered columned colonnades. Architecturally, the Temple of Artemis is an Ionic column. The characteristics of this pillar temple architecture are that its plane and three-dimensional structure are symmetrical, the columns are spaced at large intervals, and the subtleties are more decorated in relief, and the overall structure is more gorgeous.

Legend has it that the temple was destroyed by a fire in 356 BC. Later, a new temple was rebuilt on the site of the old temple. The new temple has a front hall, an outer hall and a treasury, and there are escalators leading to the roof.

The most remarkable thing is still its columns, with a total of 127 marble columns. The rebuilt Temple of Artemis was destroyed by the Goths in 262 AD, but traditional ceremonies are still held on the ruins of the temple.

The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus is the most beautiful Ionian temple of the Archaic period, and in its size and sophistication, Lingtan is arguably second to none among the temples found throughout Greece during this period. It is 55 meters wide on the front and i00 meters long on the side, and the columns are composed of double-layered columns, with a total of 140 columns.