A single column rises from a marshy field, sometimes crowned by a stork's nest. It takes imagination to picture what stood here: one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

A wonder rebuilt

The Temple of Artemis, the Artemision, was a Greek temple to a local form of the goddess Artemis, near ancient Ephesus on the edge of modern Selçuk, about 75 km south of İzmir. The site was occupied as early as the Bronze Age, and in the second half of the 8th century BC a temple with a colonnade around it was built, perhaps the earliest such Greek temple anywhere. A flood destroyed it in the 7th century BC.

Croesus and Herostratus

Around 550 BC a grander temple was begun by the Cretan architect Chersiphron, funded by Croesus of Lydia. It stood until 356 BC, when it was burned down by an arsonist, popularly named as Herostratus. The final temple was paid for by the people of Ephesus; the Ephesian Artemis was seen as the city's protector. That last temple was destroyed in 262 AD, though Artemis was worshipped here until around 401 AD. Only foundations and fragments remain.

Visiting

The site is free to visit but not well signposted. Allow 20 to 30 minutes, and bring a hat and water. Combine it with Ephesus and the Ephesus Archaeological Museum in Selçuk, which charges admission.

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  The column All that stands today.
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  Foundations Of the last temple.
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  Ephesus The ancient city nearby.
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  Ephesus Museum In Selçuk.