The Temple of Artemis, Jerash · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

Templum Artemidis

Temple of Artemis

TempleArabia Petraea · Jerash, JordanBuilt 150 CE

Not standing in 117 CE

About

Gerasa's largest temple honoured the city's patron goddess and rose between 150 and 170 CE on a huge artificial terrace. Twelve Corinthian columns front the ruin, and eleven still stand; slide a blade into a drum joint and you can watch the shafts rock in the wind. Only twelve of the thirty-two planned columns were ever raised. The whole complex postdates the 117 CE snapshot by more than three decades.

What happened here

The building itself is a house for the god, and most people never go inside. Everything public happens on the steps and at the altar in front: an animal led up, examined, killed cleanly, its organs read, the meat divided and eaten. The priest covers his head and a flute player keeps up a noise so no ill-omened word is heard. Worshippers leave what they can afford — a terracotta figure, a coin, a model of the body part they want healed — and the accumulated clutter is periodically cleared and buried on site. On festival days the doors are opened and the cult statue is dressed, garlanded, and sometimes carried out through the streets. The temple also holds money, which is why towns keep their treasury in one.