The Temple of ArtemisBy Maria Kogan

Location Paragraph

Located 8,900 miles from Olympia, the Temple of Artemis is in the city of Ephesus (modern Selcuk),Turkey, and on the continent of Asia. The absolute location of this site is 38 N, 27 E. When visiting the Temple of Artemis, you may travel through Bulgaria and Greece. If you were to journey to Turkey, you would travel a total of 8,900 miles in a East and slightly south direction. While there, you might want to visit some nearby areas such as Izmir to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Athens to the west of The Temple of Artemis.

Descriptive Paragraph

When describing The Temple of Artemis, I would say that is was 377 ft. long, and 180 ft. wide, with an area of 3 times larger than that of the Parthenon. The cella (inner room) was enclosed in colonnades of 127 columns, each 60 ft. in height. Within the cella stood many sculptures of Amazons, who were supposedly the founders of Ephesus. Yet the main attraction was the statue of Artemis, goddess of the moon. Artemis was carved of wood, and immensely decorated with jewelry. From her waist down, she was enclosed in a decorated pillar, with her feet protruding from the bottom. A majestic crown stood on Artemis’s noble heard.

How BuiltThe Temple of Artemis was built by using carts that carried the many

columns to the Temple. But for fear of the carts getting stuck in the marshy grounds of Ephesus, the architect, Chersiphron, had the columns rolled to the places where they would be erected. Then, the Temple was built on the columns, almost entirely of marble. All this was for the moon goddess, Artemis. Eventually, it was burned down by a young Ephesian named Herostratus. Archeologists found out that 5 temples were built on the same site as one after another was destroyed. The original Temple was around the year 550 B.C., and took (according to common theory) almost 120 years to build, but experts suspect it took only half that time to build the Temple of Artemis.

Why Famous

The Temple of Artemis is famous because it is the site of one of the few temples that worshiped the Ephesians’ sacred god, Artemis, the goddess of the moon. It was important to the Ephesians for that exact same reason.

Visiting Today

If you went to the site of The Temple of Artemis today, not much would be there, because it no longer exists. All that is left of the sacred Temple is a marshy field, and a single stone column erected in the memory of one of the great original 7 wonders of the worlds. People might still want to visit the site of The Temple of Artemis today because there once stood a temple so special, and so sacred to the Ephesians of Turkey.

Reflections

• I learned from this project that a lot of work is required to make a quality project, and that this project is important because it will prepare me for future projects. What I think I did well is taking the notes, and creating a quality powerpoint. Next time, I could improve upon the exact information I need for my notes, like how it was built. I could have had some more information there. My favorite part was putting the powerpoint together.

Pictures