The three most important things when choosing where to put your, er, temple, are ‘location, location, location.’
Apparently, in its prime, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was one of the more spectacular of the ancient 7 wonders of the world. This according to the guy who made the list in the first place, Antipater of Sidon. We will have to go on his word for it, as nothing remains of the temple in question. On the site, there is a single marble column still standing erect, amidst a scattering of old stones but this is from a subsequent rendition. This solitary reminder can be found in Selçuk district, in the province of İzmir in Turkey.
On the topic of destruction, it is interesting to note how often anything built on that site ended up in rubble. The first attempts at building something date back to the Bronze Age i.e. very, very, very long ago. A cycle of building and rebuilding temples ensued. Floods and various acts of god, as it were, knocking the tribute to the goddess over. Construction on the version that secured the temples place in the annals of history began around 550 BC and took over a hundred years to put together. Unless plagued by labour unions or striking employees, that means a lot of effort went into its construction. The temple is said to have been about 50 feet high, rectangular in shape measuring 300 x 150 feet in total.
Unfortunately the completed temple served as a place of worship for less than a century, when Herostratus, an arsonist seeking fame burnt the whole shebang to the ground. His quest for immortalisation was nearly snuffed out as the Ephesians vowed never to utter his name lest it be recorded in history. Unfortunately for them, a pompous historian called Theopompus couldn’t be bothered with their policy and gave the fire setting dog, his day. This ultimately securing himself a position alongside the arsonist as the man who named him.
Interestingly, Alexander the Great was born the same day as the temple burnt down.
Following that episode, at least three temples were built on the same site. The temple immediately following the famous version was 50% bigger and at least 10 feet taller than its predecessor. This building, also went down in flames at the hand of the Goths but at least it lasted 500 years.
In a sense the structural rebirth is fitting as it honours the goddess Artemis. Her department was amongst other things childbirth. She was also the deity responsible for virginity. Conflict of interest perhaps? Her portfolio did not end there though as she was the goddess also of the Hunt, the Moon, Bringer and Reliever of Disease in Women amongst other things.
She also went by the name Diana and was the twin of brother Apollo and daughter of Zeus.
One way or the other, she had, as is evidenced by the repeated tribute, quite the cult following lasting until the advent of Christianity. The disciple John is said to have exorcised the bad vibes from the temple, resulting in the altar shattering as well as the faith of the people in the Greek deity. See TravMonkey’s great section on seven wonders of the world for more information on other wonders.