'"I have seen the walls and Hanging Gardens of ancient Babylon," wrote Philon of Byzantium, "the statue of Olympian Zeus, the Colossus of Rhodes, the mighty work of the high Pyramids and the tomb of Mausolus. But when I saw the temple at Ephesus rising to the clouds, all these other wonders were put in the shade."'
While on holiday in
Turkey a couple of years ago, we decided to visit
Ephesus. As part of that trip, we were taken to see the Temple of
Artemis. All that remains of it now is a single
marble column. Compared to the rest of
Ephesus, it would perhaps have been quite unimpressive had you not known it's history. We could see "the rest" of the temple, we were told by our guide, at the
British Museum in
London.
Today it is
illegal to try to take so much as a
roman coin out of
Turkey, but under the
Ottoman Empire which existed until 1923, the ruling government was only too happy to sell off ancient
artifacts to the highest bidder. Both
Turkey and
Greece are now trying to have parts of the British Museum's collection returned.
While I suspect that the guide may have been
slightly exaggerating (I haven't been to the British Museum yet to find out) I don't doubt that they will ever see some of their most important historical
treasures returned, as they were bought "legally" at the time. I do understand their frustration though- The chances of an average Turkish citizen being able to travel to England and view these items are extremely slim, and in my opinion they
should be returned.
The other side of the argument, however, is that
someone would probably have bought these artifacts if the British museum hadn't, and they might not be on public display today. Worse, they could have been forgotten altogether or even destroyed. The temple was apparently already completely buried in a
swamp when
John Turtle Wood started searching for it in 1863.
I do plan to see for myself how much of the Temple really is held in the British Museum. It's ironic that I'd never had any desire before to make the short (~130 mile) trip to
London until I'd been all the way to
Turkey.