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Magnesia Located in the south of Ephesus , Magnesia is an impressive site. Buried under the sand, brought by Meander River , Magnesia still houses outstanding monuments for shedding light upon history and architecture of the region. According to tradition, Magnesia was founded by the soldiers of Agamemnon after the Trojan War. The city was built by the Aeolians originating from Magnesia in Thessaly . An inscription, discovered in Magnesia, records that this was the first city founded by the Greeks in Asia Minor . One of the imposing buildings in Magnesia is famous temple of Artemis . This beautiful temple is one of the landmarks the history of architecture. It was designed and built by Hermogenes who was also architect of the Dionysus Temple in Teos. Here Hermogenes applied a new plan for his temple. He designed the temple as if he was going to put two rows of columns but he omitted the inner row and put only one row of columns. This plan which is known as pseudo or false dipteros became popular after this temple. Vitrivius mentions the temple as the prototype of this type of plan. Geographer Strabo mentions that this was third greatest temple after those in Didyma and Ephesus . He even comments that the temple in Magnesia was far better than the temple of Artemis because of its fine proportions. .After the ancient writers, this was the sacred shrine of Artemis. Archeologist from the German Institute of Istanbul carried out digs there starting from 1890 and discovered the temple of Artemis and Temple of Zeus Sosipolis . The temple and the city was utterly destroyed during the Persian and Arabic attacks of Medieval Byzantine Era. In addition to the theatre, German Archeological Institute also excavated Odeon, stadium. It is suggested that all these three buildings were used during the famous Artemis Festival done every four years. This festival started in 220 BC when a miracle concerning Artemis took place in Magnesia. The miraculous appearance of the Artemis was reported to Apollo Temple at Delphi who declared Magnesia as a holy ground for the Goddess. Then the people of Magnesia sent messengers to all the cities of ancient world inviting them to their festival. On the walls of the market place, there are copies 70 letters written by cities accepting the invitation.
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