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This
was supposed to be one of the most
beautiful structures on the Earth. No
wonder it got recognized as one of the
seven wonders of the world.
Location:
This is located on the west coast of modern Turkey, south of Selcuk
county about 50 km south of Smyrna. This
place was called as Ephesus during
ancient times.
Details:
This
temple was destroyed and rebuilt over
several hundred years. This was first
built during 800 BC near the river at
Ephesus. The God Artemis in Ephesus is a
goddess of fertility. In some instances
Artemis is linked closely to the Roman
and Italian goddess, Diana. She also is
goddess of night, fruitfulness,
childbirth, beasts, bull and is an
eternal virgin.
This earliest temple supposedly contained a sacred stone, probably fallen
from Jupiter. By 600 BC, a Greek
architect named Chersiphron (and his
son, Metagenes) was engaged and the
temple was built. The temple was
decorated with beautiful bronze statues
sculpted by artists Pheidias,
Polycleitus, Kresilas and Phradmon. This
was destroyed by the Lydian king Croesus
when he conquered Ephesus. He later
built a large temple at the same place
with the help of Theodorus.
This temple was both a market place and a place of worship. For years
this place was visited by lots of
merchants, tourists, artisans, kings to
pay their homage and share their profits
with the Artemis goddess. Lots of
scholars venerated to the extent that
this came to be recognized as one of the
seven wonders of the world.
On July 21, 356 BC, a man named HeroStratus burned the temple. He did
this in order to gain a big name in the
history. For an inquisitive info,
Alexander was also born the same night.
The reconstruction was commenced very
shortly with an architect called Scopas
of Paros. He was the best architect of
those times. When Alexander conquered
Asia Minor, he offered to rebuild the
temple. The reconstruction was in
progress when he reached this place.
Even then, it was restored only after
his death. When he came into this place
in 333 BC, the temple was still being
rebuilt.
This Temple was the last of the Great Goddess Temples to remain open and
was the site of Goddess worship well
into the Christian era. When St. Paul
visited Ephesus to preach Christianity,
he was not at all accepted by the local
Artemisians. But after the temple was
destroyed by Goths in AD 262, most of
the people had got themselves converted
to Christianity. In AD 401 St. John
Chrysostom torn the whole structure
down. That was the end to this wonder of
the world. This site got excavated only in
19th century.
This one of the seven wonders of world supposed to have contained 106 columns and each of them believed to
be from 40 to 60 ft height. foundation
was approximately 200 feet by 400 feet. |