Ancient Wonder of the World – The Temple of Artemis, Ephesus

The second main reason why we visited Bodrum, Turkey was to make the two and half hour trip to see Ephesus. Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, three kilometres southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of the former Arzawan capital by Attic and Ionian Greek colonists. During the Classical Greek era it was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League. The city flourished after it came under the control of the Roman Republic in 129 BC. The city was destroyed by the Goths in 263, and although rebuilt, it was partially destroyed by an earthquake in 614 AD.

We specifically visited the city as it is famed for the nearby Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. and amoung many other monumental buildings are the Library of Celsus and a theatre capable of holding 25,000 spectators.