Model reconstructing the appearance of the lost Temple of Artemis / Diana at Ephesus, one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, displayed in the Ephesus Museum, situated close to the Temple's site. The Temple itself suffered from fire and earthquake before being finally abanoned in the Byzantine period, after which it was almost completely quarried away for the construction of other buildings nearby (such as the Basilica of St John) though some material went much further afield to Constantinople. The site disappeared from view under several metres of silt (which covered the nearby former harbour) for centuries until British archeologist John Turtle Wood rediscovered it after a lengthy search in 1869, The most important sculpted remains were from the square plinths and round column bases adorned with reliefs, one almost complete but mostly fragmentary, all of which went to the British Museum in London soon afterwards. The site itself has a few scattered column drums, some re-erected into a column in 1980, and other indistinct bits but suffers from seasonal flooding, a sad epilogue to one of the greatest buildings of Antiquity.
