Today, most of its artifacts are housed in the British Museum in London. The original structure was built 2,500 years ago in Ephesus, İzmir province, and the new temple will be built according to the original dimensions, constructed upon a 1,200-decare space. When complete, the temple will serve as a center for culture and the arts.According to the Anatolia news agency, a team of Austrian archaeologists have completed a sketch based on the past 110 years of excavation at Ephesus. An exact replica of the temple is to be built in Selçuk, about two kilometers from the site of the original structure, according to the plan drawn up by the Selçuk Artemis Culture, Arts and Education Foundation established for this purpose. The plan was presented to the Selçuk Municipality and then to the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality.
Aziz İnci, an official from Selçuk, told Anatolia that of the Seven Wonders of the World, the only ones standing were the pyramids in Egypt. "The rest are beneath the sea, beneath the earth or lost. But we have a project in hand for ours. Austrian archaeologists have been working here [at Ephesus] for 110 years. They know all the details of the temple. The Temple of Artemis will rise once more, at its original dimensions on the lands of Selçuk's Ephesus. It won't rise up alone, but as part of a broader site," he said.
İnci said the plans envision a major center for culture and the arts at the temple, including outdoor recreational areas in addition to enclosed space within the temple. The project should cost over $100 million, he noted. "We have to carry out this work in a way that respects the historical, archaeological and scientific data involved. All developments in the project take place in cooperation with the Austrian archaeological teams and regional authorities. The view of the relevant ministries is also very important and we hope that this project can be brought to life soon," İnci said.
The Temple of Artemis, or Artemision in Greek, was designed and built by Cretan architect Chersiphron and his son Metagenes in 550 B.C. The construction of this all-marble temple was financed by Lydian King Kroisos.
The temple was unearthed by British archaeologist John Turtle Wood in 1870 after a search that lasted seven years. Since 1965, excavations at the site have been carried out by an Austrian team of archeologists, who discovered new findings that helped shed more light on the architecture of the temple. By expanding the excavations, the team found important evidence that relates to the early period of the temple dating back to the second millennium B.C.
