Temple of Artemis at Ephesus: What Remains and How to Visit

Short answer: The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus no longer stands, but you can visit the place where it stood. The site is on the edge of Selçuk in western Turkey, about 2 km from the Lower Gate of the Ephesus ruins. What remains is the outline of the foundations in a marshy field and a single column, pieced together in the early 1970s from fragments found on site. The temple was burned by a fame-seeking arsonist, Herostratus, in 356 BC, rebuilt as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, set on fire by Gothic raiders in the 260s AD and later quarried for its marble. Its best-known sculpture is in the British Museum in London, and other finds are in the Ephesus Museum in Selçuk.

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World — the largest Greek temple ever constructed, four times the footprint of the Parthenon, built in a marsh that was specifically chosen because the soft ground would absorb earthquake shocks. What you see at the site today is a single reconstructed column, a shallow depression, and a stork's nest. The gap between what it was and what remains is one of the most instructive things about the ancient world. For full Ephesus site planning, see the Ephesus ancient city complete guide.

The Temple as a Wonder: Scale and Significance

The Temple of Artemis that earned its place among the Seven Wonders was the third structure on the site — not the first. Two earlier temples preceded it, the oldest dating to the 8th century BC. The Wonder was the temple rebuilt after the arson of 356 BC. The work took decades: it was still unfinished when Alexander the Great reached Ephesus in 334 BC.

The dimensions of the Hellenistic temple: approximately 115 metres by 55 metres in footprint — compared to the Parthenon's 70 by 31 metres. It had 127 columns, each 18–19 metres high, arranged in a double row around the central sanctuary. The columns were of marble; the platform was of marble; the cult statue of Artemis within was a wooden figure, which ancient writers describe as ebony or vine wood. The ancient sources describe it as the most beautiful building in the world.

The distinction that matters: this was not a modest provincial sanctuary. It was the largest, most elaborate, most costly Greek temple ever constructed. Ephesus's importance in the ancient world derived in significant part from the temple — the cult of Artemis drew pilgrims, traders, and economic activity from across the Mediterranean world. The city was, in a meaningful sense, built around the temple.

The Artemis of Ephesus: A Different Goddess

The Artemis worshipped at Ephesus is not the Artemis of Greek mythology — not the huntress with the bow, twin of Apollo, goddess of the wilderness. The Artemis of Ephesus is a distinct figure with different iconography, different cult practices, and different historical roots.

The Ephesian Artemis is typically depicted with a torso covered in multiple breast-like or egg-like protrusions — the precise identification of these features is debated among scholars (eggs? breasts? bee larvae? the testicles of sacrificed bulls?). She is a goddess of fertility, abundance, and protection, rooted in Anatolian religious tradition rather than Greek. The Greek settlers who founded Ephesus identified this indigenous deity with their own Artemis because both were associated with nature and the hunt, but the two are not the same figure.

This matters for understanding the cult: the Temple of Artemis was not a Greek religious institution imposed on the Aegean coast. It was a synthesis of Greek and Anatolian traditions around a figure who was, ultimately, Anatolian. The Hellenistic and Roman periods elaborated this synthesis without erasing its local roots.

For the mythology behind that divergence — how Homer's huntress and the Ephesian mother goddess came to share a single name — see Artemis of Ephesus and the Gods of Homer's World.

Herostratus and the Arson

The temple was burned on the night of 21 July 356 BC — the same night, according to later sources, on which Alexander the Great was born. The arsonist was a man named Herostratus.

His motive: he wanted to be famous. He confessed under torture that he had set the fire so that his name would be remembered. The Ephesians put him to death and passed a law forbidding anyone to speak or write his name. The law did not work: the historian Theopompus recorded the name, later writers such as Strabo repeated it, and he is more famous today than most of his contemporaries.

The lesson of Herostratus is not about the futility of fame-seeking. It is about the structure of historical memory: the prohibition preserved his name more effectively than fame would have. Every act of erasure is also an act of recording.

The temple was rebuilt after the arson, and this rebuilt Hellenistic temple is the Wonder. It stood on a broader base that raised the platform above the marsh level, and the Ephesians paid for it themselves. The Lydian king Croesus had funded the earlier temple; Alexander the Great offered to pay for the full reconstruction, but the Ephesians declined, apparently on the grounds that it was inappropriate for one god to dedicate a temple to another.

Croesus and the Column Drums

The oldest sculptural evidence of the Temple of Artemis is not in Turkey. It is in the British Museum in London.

Croesus, king of Lydia, paid for most of the columns of the archaic temple (the one before the Wonder), according to the historian Herodotus. Carved drums from those columns survive, and fragments of their bases carry pieces of his dedication, restored as Basileus Kroisos anethēken ("King Croesus dedicated this"). They were found by John Turtle Wood, who excavated the temple for the British Museum from 1869 to 1874, and went to London with much of the other material he dug up.

The inscription is the direct physical link between the Lydian king — the figure of proverbs, the man whose wealth gave us the phrase "rich as Croesus" — and this specific structure at this specific place.

What Remains Today

The site of the Temple of Artemis is on the western edge of Selçuk, about 75 km south of İzmir, in the flat plain between the town and the ruins of Ephesus. It is about 2 km from the Lower Gate of Ephesus as the crow flies, or about 2.5 km on foot. The Ephesus Museum, the İsa Bey Mosque and the Basilica of St. John on Ayasuluk Hill are all within about a 15-minute walk. Since 2015 the site has been part of the Ephesus UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the same listed area as Ayasuluk Hill and its medieval settlement.

What survives: a single column, reconstructed in the 1970s from fragments found on site, standing approximately 14 metres high against the open sky. A shallow rectangular depression marks the outline of the platform. The surrounding area is flat, partly waterlogged (the marsh drainage was never complete), and occupied by a stork colony — the storks nest on the reconstructed column in breeding season, which gives the site an accidental grandeur.

The dramatic collapse between what the ancient sources describe and what stands today is the experience the site offers. This is not a disappointment — it is instructive. Gothic raiders set fire to the temple in the 260s AD, and after the pagan temples were closed around AD 400, the building became a quarry. Its marble blocks were taken apart on a large scale and reused in the Basilica of St. John on Ayasuluk Hill, built under Emperor Justinian in the 6th century. A popular story says some columns of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul also came from here, but it is a late medieval legend with no evidence behind it. One of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world ended up in the walls of the city's great Christian church.

There is no ticket office at the Temple of Artemis, and entry is free (as of 2026). The main Ephesus site, the Terrace Houses, the Ephesus Museum and the Basilica of St. John all charge admission; for current prices, see our Ephesus entrance fee guide.

Where Are the Finds From the Temple of Artemis?

Most of what was dug up here has left the site. John Turtle Wood found the temple's marble pavement on the last day of 1869, about 6 metres under the marsh, after a six-year search paid for by the British Museum. His finds went to London. The British Museum still holds the temple's best-known sculpture, including a huge carved column drum from the rebuilt temple, pieces of the earlier temple paid for by Croesus, and part of what may be the oldest hoard of coins in the world, buried in the foundations of the archaic temple around 600 BC.

The finds that stayed in Turkey are in the Ephesus Museum in Selçuk, a short walk from the site. When the museum reopened after renovation in 2015, it put nearly 400 finds from the temple on display. Its two famous marble statues of Artemis are Roman versions of the temple's lost cult image, but they were found in the Prytaneion, the town hall of Ephesus. Pieces of the temple's altar are in the Ephesos Museum in Vienna, and some early gold and ivory offerings are in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums.

Visiting: What to Do With 30 Minutes Here

Plan on about 30 minutes here. The site is flat and easy to walk, and it pairs naturally with the other sights on the Selçuk side of Ephesus: the Ephesus Museum, the Basilica of St. John and the İsa Bey Mosque, which together make an easy afternoon after the main ruins.

The site rewards a specific approach: rather than hoping to visualise the vanished temple, focus on the three things that are actually present and legible.

First, the single column: look at its diameter (approximately 1.8 metres) and multiply by 127. The column forest that surrounded this platform would have been unlike anything visible in the ancient world — denser and taller than any surviving Greco-Roman colonnade.

Second, the platform depression: stand at the edge and look across it. The platform is roughly the size of a city block. This was not a building in the conventional sense — it was a precinct, an enclosed world.

Third, the context of demolition: look at the rubble field around the reconstructed column. This is not natural collapse from earthquake or neglect. The stones were cut and removed, one by one, by later generations who needed the material. The absence of material is itself evidence of medieval and Byzantine construction activity across the whole region.

The Temple of Artemis is a stop on several of our private tours, including Ephesus, Virgin Mary & Temple of Artemis, Ephesus Archaeological and Ephesus Brilliant. On our other private Ephesus tours, it is typically added as a 30-minute stop before or after Ephesus itself. Either way, we use the visual contrast between the two sites, the substantial ruins of the city and the near-total absence of the Wonder, as the interpretive frame.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is special about the Temple of Artemis?
It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and one of the largest Greek temples ever built, with 127 columns according to Pliny the Elder. The archaic temple paid for by Croesus is said to have been the first Greek temple built of marble, and its foundations held part of what may be the oldest hoard of coins in the world. The poet Antipater of Sidon, listing the Wonders, wrote that when he saw this temple, "those other marvels lost their brilliancy".

Does the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus still exist?
No. The last temple was set on fire by Gothic raiders in the 260s AD, closed around AD 400 and then taken apart for its marble. Only the foundations survive in place, along with a single column that was assembled in the early 1970s from miscellaneous pieces found at the site.

Can you still see the Temple of Artemis?
You can see where it stood. The site is an open field on the edge of Selçuk with the outline of the foundations, scattered marble and the one re-erected column, often topped by a stork's nest in the breeding season. Allow about 30 minutes. To see the temple's sculpture, visit the Ephesus Museum in Selçuk or the British Museum in London.

Where is the Temple of Artemis today?
In Selçuk, in İzmir Province in western Turkey, about 75 km south of İzmir and about 20 km from Kuşadası. The site is on the edge of town, about 2 km from the Lower Gate of Ephesus. It is part of the Ephesus UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2015.

Which of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was destroyed by a fame-seeking arsonist?
The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. A man named Herostratus burned it down on the night of 21 July 356 BC, then admitted under interrogation that he'd done it purely to make his name famous. Ephesus responded by outlawing the mention of his name — which is exactly how we still know it today.

Who destroyed the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus?
A flood destroyed the earliest temple in the 7th century BC. Herostratus burned the archaic temple in 356 BC. Gothic raiders set fire to the rebuilt temple in the 260s AD, and after it was closed, builders took its marble away, much of it for the Basilica of St. John. Later Christian writers credited John Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople, with destroying it, but there is little evidence for that.

Why was the Temple of Artemis destroyed?
Herostratus set the fire of 356 BC because he wanted his name remembered, though some modern scholars doubt he acted alone. The final destruction came from a Gothic raid in the 260s AD, the closing of pagan temples once the Roman Empire became Christian, and the value of the temple's marble as building stone.

Is the Temple of Artemis worth visiting?
Yes, but manage expectations. The site does not offer visual spectacle — it offers historical contrast. The gap between what this was and what remains is the experience. If you are visiting Ephesus and have 30 extra minutes and the entry fee is not a constraint, go.

Where are the artefacts from the Temple of Artemis?
Mainly in the British Museum in London, which holds the sculpture from the British excavations of 1869 to 1874, and the Selçuk Ephesus Museum (Selçuk town centre, near the site), which shows the finds that stayed in Turkey. Smaller groups are in the Ephesos Museum in Vienna, part of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, and in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums.

Why was the temple built in a marsh?
Deliberately. The architects believed that soft marshy ground would absorb earthquake shocks better than solid rock foundation. Pliny the Elder records this explicitly. Whether the engineering theory is correct is debatable — the site experienced multiple earthquake events — but the intention was seismic protection.

How do I get to the Temple of Artemis from Ephesus?
From the Lower Gate of Ephesus, the Artemision is about 2.5 km on foot (30 to 35 minutes) or about 5 minutes by taxi. From the Upper Gate, take a taxi (about 10 minutes). In Selçuk, it is about a 15-minute walk from the bus station or the Ephesus Museum. From Kuşadası it is about 20 km, under half an hour by car; see how to get from Kuşadası to Ephesus.

Part of the Ephesus ancient city complete guide. For the other major religious site in the area, see the House of Virgin Mary guide.