Temple of Artemis (Ephesus)

Historical Site

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: the largest marble temple of antiquity, dedicated to the goddess Artemis. Even its single standing column gives pause.

A single column rising among the reeds on the Selçuk plain… This modest sight, all that remains of the Temple of Artemis today, marks the place of the largest marble structure of antiquity — once counted among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Dedicated to Artemis, goddess of the moon, nature and the hunt, the temple with its 127 columns was nearly twice the size of the Parthenon in Athens; the ancient writer Antipater of Sidon, having seen the other wonders, wrote that none was as magnificent as this.

The temple’s story is woven from destruction and rebirth: in 356 BC a man named Herostratus set it on fire purely to immortalise his own name — by legend, on the very night Alexander the Great was born. The Ephesians rebuilt it more splendidly still. Over the centuries earthquakes, plunder and the alluvium carried by the Meander buried the temple; its stones were reused in other buildings. Rediscovered in the 19th century by the British archaeologist John Turtle Wood, the site today greets visitors with one column, re-erected from surviving fragments.

This temple is the sacred home of the goddess whose name our hotel bears — and by a curious coincidence, another of the Seven Wonders, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, stands in Bodrum. Seeing two wonders on a single holiday is one of the rare privileges the Aegean offers. The site combines easily into one day with the Ephesus Ancient City, the Basilica of St. John and central Selçuk.