Most physical descriptions of the temple come from Pliny the Elder, although there are discrepancies over its size. Pliny describes the temple as 377 feet long (115 m) by 180 feet wide (55 m), made mainly of marble, it is the largest in the entire Greek world. It consisted of 127 "Column (Architecture)" columns, each 60 feet high (18 m), equal to 12 times the diameter of the base.

It had three rows of columns on the western façade (with a total of 36), divided into three rows of eight columns, two columns on the sides of the antas and a double row that divided the large pronaos into three naves.

The cella "Cella (architecture)") was long and narrow, as in archaic temples, and at the back there was a canopy, in which the cult statue was located, on the remains of the altar from the century BC. c.

On the rear façade there were 9 columns, and 21 on the sides.

After the arson of 356 BC. C., the reconstruction work must have lasted a long time.

The plan and proportions of the new building were kept roughly the same as the previous one, except for the addition of a stepped (12 steps) crepidoma (the platform on which the temple stands) 2.68 m high. It had sculpted columns at the bottom (only the 16 in the first two rows of the western façade), while about twenty sculpted dice supported the columns in antis. The columns, according to Pliny, were 60 feet high (17.65 m), approximately 10 times the diameter of the base. It has been thought that the architect of the new temple was Dinocrates, who was influenced by Pitheus, the author of the temple of Athena of Priene.

With the Austrian excavations of 1965, the marble altar measuring 22 x 32 m was brought to light.

The temple housed several works of art: sculptures by the renowned Polycletus, Phidias, Cresilas and Fradmon), paintings, and columns lined with gold and silver. Several of these sculptures referred to Amazons "Amazon (mythology)") who, according to legend, had been found in that region.

Pliny comments that he worked sculpting reliefs and decorating the columns Scopas of Paros, who had also intervened in the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.

The temple of Artemis was located in a prosperous region, crossed by travelers and merchants from all over Asia Minor. It was influenced by various beliefs, and was a symbol of faith for many people. The Ephesians worshiped Cybele, and incorporated much of their beliefs into the cult of Artemis. The Artemis-Cybele duo was far from its Roman equivalent Diana "Diana (mythology)").

The cult of Artemis attracted thousands of worshipers from all over the known world. Many prominent historical figures made offerings, among them to the Persians were thereafter deposited in the temple of Artemis.[5]​.

Xenophon of Ephesus in his novel Ephesíaca, from the 19th century, describes the procession that was celebrated during the festival in honor of Artemis, which ran between the city and the temple, over a distance of seven stadiums "Stadium (unit of length)"). All the girls of the city with elegant decorations and the ephebes paraded in the procession. First they carried the sacred objects, the torches, the baskets with offerings and incense; then horses, dogs and other hunting elements.[6]​.

After six years of searching, the temple site was rediscovered in 1869 by an expedition led by John Turtle Wood and sponsored by the British Museum. These excavations continued until 1874.[7] During the 1904-1906 excavations led by David George Hogarth, a few more sculpture fragments were found. Sculptural fragments recovered from the century's reconstruction and a few from the earlier temple, which had been used in filling rubble for the reconstruction, were gathered and displayed in the "Ephesus Room" of the British Museum.[8] In addition, the museum holds part of what is possibly the world's oldest coin jar (600 BC), which had been buried in the foundations of the archaic temple.[9]

Today, the site of the temple, which is located on the outskirts of Selçuk, is marked by a single column constructed from dissociated fragments discovered at the site.

The Selçuk Artemis Culture"), Arts and Education Foundation") is planning to build the Artemision for the third time in history. The new temple, which will maintain the same size as its predecessor, will be built in an area called Kurutepe"), 1,500 meters from the original location of the temple and has a budget of 150 million dollars.[10]​.

• - Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia category on the temple of Artemis at Ephesus.

• - Temple of Artemis, Ephesus, objects in the British Museum.

• - Religious cults associated with the Amazons (1912) Florence Mary Bennett, chapter III: Artemis of Ephesus. (in English).

• - 3D reconstruction project of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

• - The work Naturalis Historia by Pliny the Elder: XXXVI.xxi.95.

• - Life of Alexander the Great, by Plutarch: III.5.

• - BREMMER, Jan: Priestly Personnel of the Ephesian Artemision: Anatolian, Persian, Greek, and Roman Aspects, in Practitioners of the Divine: Greek Priests and Religious Figures from Homer to Heliodorus from Homer to Heliodorus*), 2008.

• Text Archived on August 5, 2019 at the Wayback Machine., in English, on the site of the Center for Hellenic Studies (CHS or Center for Hellenic Studies), a Washington institution affiliated with Harvard University and directed by Gregory Nagy.

• Jan Bremmer (Jan N. Bremmer, b. 1944): Dutch historian specializing in the religion of Ancient Greece and early Christianity; He was a professor of theology and religion at the University of Groningen.

• For citations: Dignas, Beate, and Kai Trampedach, eds. 2008. Practitioners of the Divine: Greek Priests and Religious Figures from Homer to Heliodorus. Hellenic Studies Series 30. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.

The holy site of Ephesus was much older than the temple. The geographer Pausanias "Pausanias (geographer)" stated that it existed many years before the Ionian immigration and that it was even older than the cult of the Oracle of Apollo in Didyma. The previous inhabitants of the city were Leleges and Lydians.

The place where the sanctuary of Artemis was founded had already been an object of veneration by the local populations who practiced there the cult of the Mother Goddess or Cybele, a cult to which that of Artemis was later assimilated.

The excavations of the British School allow us to follow the main phases of the architectural evolution of the complex.

The great abundance of votive offerings, from the century BC. C., demonstrates a place of worship. The oldest building that corresponds to the first phase is an altar, which was followed by the construction of some small temples (naískois). Of these, the one that precedes the archaic temple was built around 600 BC. C. It measured 14 x 28 m and was surrounded by a closing wall.

The construction of the building took a long time. Pliny the Elder[1][2]​ and Marcus Vitruvius claim that the work continued for 120 years and that several architects directed it. The first construction of the temple dates back to the century BC. C., and was destroyed by the Cimmerians.

The temple was designed by the Greek architect Chersiphron, from the Cretan city of Knossos and built around 550 BC. C. at the expense of Croesus, the powerful king of Lydia. It was completed by Metagenes, son of Chersiphron, with the help of Theodore, the architect of the Hereus of Samos. Rocky terrain was chosen as a precaution against earthquakes, according to Pliny the Elder. The temple became a tourist attraction, visited by merchants, kings and travelers, who paid tribute to Artemis in the form of jewelry and other goods. Her splendor also attracted worshipers who formed the cult of Artemis.

The temple was respected as a place of refuge, a tradition that was transferred to the myth with the Amazons "Amazon (mythology)") who took refuge there from both Hercules and Dionysus.

The temple of Ephesus was destroyed by a fire caused by Erostratus on July 21, 356 BC. C., the night that, it is said, Alexander the Great was born. According to history, his only goal was to achieve fame at any cost.

The Ephesians, outraged, tried to ensure that his name was never remembered, forbidding, under penalty of death, the mention of it. However, this has come through Strabo.

Alexander the Great was born the night the temple burned. Plutarch ruled that Artemis was too worried about this event to save her own burning temple. Later, Alexander would offer the Ephesians to finance its reconstruction, which they refused, arguing that it was not appropriate for a god to build a temple for another divinity. However, the temple was restored after his death, in 323 BC. C. The reconstruction of the temple is attributed by some authors to the Rhodian (or according to others, Macedonian) Dinocrates, who made the measurements for the founding of the city of Alexandria, in Egypt.

However, this reconstruction would be destroyed by the Goths in the year 262, during the time of Emperor Gallienus.

Over the next two centuries most of the Ephesians converted to Christianity and the ancient temple lost its religious interest. The Christians demolished the remains of the building and reused the materials for other constructions; currently you can see some Hellenistic columns from the Temple of Artemis as part of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

The temple site was rediscovered in 1869 by a British Museum expedition. Various sculptures and artifacts can still be seen, although only one column of the seventh wonder of the world remains standing.

There is a reference in the New Testament to the temple of Diana of the Ephesians, which helps us perceive that figurines of this temple were made (possibly to scale) for sale, and the fervor that the Ephesians of that time had for their building.

Most physical descriptions of the temple come from Pliny the Elder, although there are discrepancies over its size. Pliny describes the temple as 377 feet long (115 m) by 180 feet wide (55 m), made mainly of marble, it is the largest in the entire Greek world. It consisted of 127 "Column (Architecture)" columns, each 60 feet high (18 m), equal to 12 times the diameter of the base.

It had three rows of columns on the western façade (with a total of 36), divided into three rows of eight columns, two columns on the sides of the antas and a double row that divided the large pronaos into three naves.

The cella "Cella (architecture)") was long and narrow, as in archaic temples, and at the back there was a canopy, in which the cult statue was located, on the remains of the altar from the century BC. c.

On the rear façade there were 9 columns, and 21 on the sides.

After the arson of 356 BC. C., the reconstruction work must have lasted a long time.

The plan and proportions of the new building were kept roughly the same as the previous one, except for the addition of a stepped (12 steps) crepidoma (the platform on which the temple stands) 2.68 m high. It had sculpted columns at the bottom (only the 16 in the first two rows of the western façade), while about twenty sculpted dice supported the columns in antis. The columns, according to Pliny, were 60 feet high (17.65 m), approximately 10 times the diameter of the base. It has been thought that the architect of the new temple was Dinocrates, who was influenced by Pitheus, the author of the temple of Athena of Priene.

With the Austrian excavations of 1965, the marble altar measuring 22 x 32 m was brought to light.

The temple housed several works of art: sculptures by the renowned Polycletus, Phidias, Cresilas and Fradmon), paintings, and columns lined with gold and silver. Several of these sculptures referred to Amazons "Amazon (mythology)") who, according to legend, had been found in that region.

Pliny comments that he worked sculpting reliefs and decorating the columns Scopas of Paros, who had also intervened in the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.

The temple of Artemis was located in a prosperous region, crossed by travelers and merchants from all over Asia Minor. It was influenced by various beliefs, and was a symbol of faith for many people. The Ephesians worshiped Cybele, and incorporated much of their beliefs into the cult of Artemis. The Artemis-Cybele duo was far from its Roman equivalent Diana "Diana (mythology)").

The cult of Artemis attracted thousands of worshipers from all over the known world. Many prominent historical figures made offerings, among them to the Persians were thereafter deposited in the temple of Artemis.[5]​.

Xenophon of Ephesus in his novel Ephesíaca, from the 19th century, describes the procession that was celebrated during the festival in honor of Artemis, which ran between the city and the temple, over a distance of seven stadiums "Stadium (unit of length)"). All the girls of the city with elegant decorations and the ephebes paraded in the procession. First they carried the sacred objects, the torches, the baskets with offerings and incense; then horses, dogs and other hunting elements.[6]​.

After six years of searching, the temple site was rediscovered in 1869 by an expedition led by John Turtle Wood and sponsored by the British Museum. These excavations continued until 1874.[7] During the 1904-1906 excavations led by David George Hogarth, a few more sculpture fragments were found. Sculptural fragments recovered from the century's reconstruction and a few from the earlier temple, which had been used in filling rubble for the reconstruction, were gathered and displayed in the "Ephesus Room" of the British Museum.[8] In addition, the museum holds part of what is possibly the world's oldest coin jar (600 BC), which had been buried in the foundations of the archaic temple.[9]

Today, the site of the temple, which is located on the outskirts of Selçuk, is marked by a single column constructed from dissociated fragments discovered at the site.

The Selçuk Artemis Culture"), Arts and Education Foundation") is planning to build the Artemision for the third time in history. The new temple, which will maintain the same size as its predecessor, will be built in an area called Kurutepe"), 1,500 meters from the original location of the temple and has a budget of 150 million dollars.[10]​.

• - Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia category on the temple of Artemis at Ephesus.

• - Temple of Artemis, Ephesus, objects in the British Museum.

• - Religious cults associated with the Amazons (1912) Florence Mary Bennett, chapter III: Artemis of Ephesus. (in English).

• - 3D reconstruction project of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

• - The work Naturalis Historia by Pliny the Elder: XXXVI.xxi.95.

• - Life of Alexander the Great, by Plutarch: III.5.

• - BREMMER, Jan: Priestly Personnel of the Ephesian Artemision: Anatolian, Persian, Greek, and Roman Aspects, in Practitioners of the Divine: Greek Priests and Religious Figures from Homer to Heliodorus from Homer to Heliodorus*), 2008.

• Text Archived on August 5, 2019 at the Wayback Machine., in English, on the site of the Center for Hellenic Studies (CHS or Center for Hellenic Studies), a Washington institution affiliated with Harvard University and directed by Gregory Nagy.

• Jan Bremmer (Jan N. Bremmer, b. 1944): Dutch historian specializing in the religion of Ancient Greece and early Christianity; He was a professor of theology and religion at the University of Groningen.

• For citations: Dignas, Beate, and Kai Trampedach, eds. 2008. Practitioners of the Divine: Greek Priests and Religious Figures from Homer to Heliodorus. Hellenic Studies Series 30. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.