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The Man Who Singlehandedly Destroyed A Wonder Of The World
Why did he do it?
The Second Temple of Artemis was a grand structure built in the ancient city of Ephesus. The temple was commissioned by the legendary King Croesus of Lydia in 560 BCE. The temple measured 337 feet long and 180 feet wide. It was adorned with dozens of pillars, which stood at forty feet tall each. At least thirty-six of these marble pillars were carved with relief images. The roof opened to the sky around a grand statue of Artemis. Herodotus dubbed it one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Not only was the temple grand and expansive, it was one of the first large scale Greek structures to be built largely from marble. That is a tradition that would continue for centuries, leaving us some of the greatest ruins in human history.
Most wonders of the world had to be destroyed by momentous forces like armies or natural disasters (the First Temple of Artemis was destroyed by a flood.) The Second Temple of Artemis was destroyed by one man.
The Wonder Destroyer
