THE TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS AT SARDIS

THE TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS AT SARDIS

The Temple of Artemis at Sardis, the fourth largest Ionic temple in the world, is situated dramatically on the western slopes of the Acropolis, below the mass of the Tmolus Mountains in a broad valley opening into the ancient Pactolus River bed. As with the other two Artemisions of Asia Minor, the great Archaic/Hellenistic temple at Ephesus and Hermogenes’ Temple of Artemis Leucophryene at Magnesia-on-the-Meander, the principal facade of the temple was toward the west. The area might have been sacred to Artemis from the earliest days onward as attested by a large Archaic altar of limestone blocks, located at the west end of the temple.