The story of Temple of Ephesian Artemis

Antipater of Sidon wrote that after seeing the world's great wonders, one look at the house of Artemis made all the others lose their brilliance. Also known as the Temple of Diana, the Artemision's Hellenistic phase was counted among the seven wonders of the world. Its first marble phase dates to the 7th century BC, and the better-known Archaic phase was begun around 550 BC, financed by the Lydian king Croesus and led by the architect Chersiphron and his son Metagenes.

An Ephesian named Herostratus is thought to have set it on fire in 356 BC. Destroyed and rebuilt many times, the temple met its final destruction in AD 401. The goddess worshipped here was quite unlike the Greek virgin huntress: Ephesian Artemis is believed to have been a cult of Cybele, the Anatolian mother goddess. On Ephesian coins she appears many-breasted, wearing a wall-like crown.

Today only marble fragments of the last phase remain, so stand here and imagine a building that seemed to rise into the clouds.