The Grand and Sacred Temple of Artemis, A Wonder of the Ancient World

The Temple of Artemis is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Three to four times as large as the Parthenon in Athens, it was once described as the largest temple and building of antiquity and served as a place of worship to the Greek Goddess Artemis. Home to both Greeks and Romans, the grand temple was destroyed and rebuilt many times over the course of its long history. The Antipater of Sidon, who compiled and visited all the seven wonders, said the temple was more marvelous than any of the other six wonders:

I have gazed on the walls of impregnable Babylon along which chariots may race, and on the Zeus by the banks of the Alpheus, I have seen the hanging gardens, and the Colossus of the Helios, the great man-made mountains of the lofty pyramids, and the gigantic tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the sacred house of Artemis that towers to the clouds, the others were placed in the shade, for the sun himself has never looked upon its equal outside Olympus.

The Temple of Artemis is dedicated to the goddess Artemis, pictured above. Artist: Geza Maroti. (Wikimedia Commons)