Two kilometers from Ephesus stood one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: the Temple of Artemis, known to the Romans as the Temple of Diana. Antipater of Sidon, who compiled the wonder list, wrote that beside it the other six wonders dimmed.
The temple was built and destroyed three times. The first great version rose in the seventh century BC and was later rebuilt with financing from Croesus, the proverbially wealthy king of Lydia. On its marble platform stood a forest of 127 columns, each some 18 meters tall — a building so vast that its final form, standing until AD 401, could shelter thousands.
The arsonist who wanted to be remembered
In 356 BC a man named Herostratus burned the temple down for a single stated reason: to make his name immortal. The Ephesians executed him and forbade anyone to speak his name, on pain of death — a law history has spectacularly failed to enforce, since here we are, still telling you about him. Legend adds that the temple burned on the very night Alexander the Great was born; Artemis, the story goes, was away attending his birth.
What you see today
A single re-erected column, foundations and wall fragments in a green marsh where storks nest on the capital — with the Basilica of St John and Ayasuluk Fortress rising on the hill behind, and Isa Bey Mosque between them. Three faiths and three millennia in one photograph: this is why locals insist the "one column" stop is worth far more than it sounds. Entrance is free, and the visit pairs naturally with any Ephesus itinerary.