BRINGING VISIBILITY TO THE ORIGINAL SPLENDOUR OF A LOST WONDER OF THE ANCIENT WORLD: THE TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS AT EPHESUS

Abstract. The visualization work presented here seeks an answer to one of the most persistant problems of our cultural heritage: to make visible the original splendour of the lost Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the world whose glory could not be surpassed in the Classical Age by any other building. Unfortunately, neither the discovery of the temple, which was found after many years of searching, nor the excavations carried out in the following 150 years were enough to completely remove the veil of mystery from this enigmatic temple, and a completely factual and academically accepted reconstruction has not been possible until today. In this article, it has been tried to give an answer to how this world-wonder temple looked. The goal is to recreate the Temple of Artemis in virtual space using tools and methods at the forefront of digital technology.The effort to bring visibility to the temple provides an opportunity to keep this unique work of our cultural heritage alive in our memories and to increase its accessibility and awareness by providing digital access to the structure that is no longer physically accessible. The most attractive and distinctive feature of virtual reality is that it can take the observer out of the spectator position and into the virtual environment. Images of the reconstruction of the Temple of Artemis are presented in the results section of the article.