Temple of Artemis ? in Kangavar - Beautiful Iran 4

The bus carrying us left Bisotun and headed for Hamadan. The road we took was the same as the Royal Road that Darius the Great (550-486 B.C.) had constructed. It had been geopolitically an important line until the end of the recent Iran-Iraq war, for it connected the Mesopotamian plain with the Iranian plateau.

We metaphorically use “Royal Road” as an easy or quick way to achieve something; for example, “There is no Royal Road to geometry.” It is originated in this road. In the 6th century B.C., taking the Royal Road, mounted couriers could travel 2,669 km from Susa (Shush in Iran) to Sardis (Sart in Turkey) as rapidly as in seven days. 

The hill of Kangavar

On the way to Hamadan we drove some 100 km north to drop in Kangavar. When we got off the bus, our tour guide asked us to climb a hill. He showed the board by the gate; “ Anahita Temple”. Anahita is the old Persian goddess. In Zoroastrianism she was the protector of water and associated with life, fertility, and beauty. 

We followed our guide to the site which was 220 m long and 210 m wide, almost square on the hill. We found large broken parts of Ionic columns: shaft, plinth, and capital, which were associated with the ancient Greek architecture. The ruins reminded me of Ephesus in Turkey I had visited before.

Ephesus was an ancient Greek city and a major Roman city on the coast of Ionia, near Sardis. It was famous for the temple of Artemis, which King Croesus (595-547? B.C.) of Lydia constructed around 550 B.C. and became one of Seven Wonders of the ancient world. However, Croesus was defeated in battle by Cyrus the Great (600 or 576-530 B.C.) of the Achaemenid Empire. The Lydian Kingdom became a Persian satrapy. After the campaign Darius the Great constructed the Royal Road from Susa to Sardis.

History usually highlights the conflicts in wartime, no events in peaceful time. However, it is in peaceful time that cultural exchange continued between the west and the east. It seems certain that the cult of Artemis was introduced into the Iranian plateau through the Royal Road. 

Afterwards, Alexander the Great of Macedon (356-323 B.C.) invaded the Achaemenid empire in 334 B.C. and finally overthrew Darius III and conquered the Empire. His series of campaigns lasted ten years and disseminated Greek culture from the Adriatic sea to the Indus River, including architecture of temple and theatre.

Interestingly, a Greek geographer, Isidorus Characenus (the 1st century B.C.) referred to Kangavar describing “the city with a temple of Artemis.”

We met a family from Kermanshah

So is the Anahita Temple originally the temple of Artemis? We were wondering among those broken parts of Ionic columns. Then I met a family from Kermanshah, who asked me whether I was a Chinese (Chini in Farsi) when I said to them “Salam” (Hello). They seemed to believe I was a Chinese. Chinese tourists might have increased because of their economic expansion. When I told them that I was a Japanese, the family smiled and asked us to come to their house for dinner. I refused it politely, and we took pictures of each other. That was their true hospitality. 

Let us return to the temple of Artemis. Later I knew that Alexander the Great had been a true believer of Artemis. One great possibility is that Alexander or his successors built up the temple of Artemis on the hill of Kangavar, for he conquered Ecbatana, modern Hamadan.

The temple of Artemis constructed by Croesus in Ephesus was 115 m long and 55 m wide, where 127 columns 18m high stood in double rows around the wooden cult image of the goddess. The image was 15 m high decorated with gold and jewelry except the face, hands, and feet. Antipater of Sidon, who compiled the list of the Seven Wonders, commented on the temple, “When I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy.” 

Model of Temple of Artemis, Istanbul 

Let my imagination run a little wilder. If there were that temple on the hill, it would have been a magnificent view from the Royal Road. 

Kangavar is a strategic point between Kermanshah and Hamadan. The Median Empire (c.678-550 B.C.) ran this place as a satellite of the capital Ecbatana. Afterwards, the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 B.C.), the Parthian Empire (247 B.C.-224 A.D.) followed the precedent. It was also important for the Sassanid Empire (224-651). The archaeological ruins on the hill were layered with the remains which had been constructed and destroyed in each period of the long history until the Muslim conquest of Persia and their iconoclasm. 

The ruins on the hill of Kangavar

Excavation on the hill began in 1968. However, it has not yet come to any definite conclusion on the ruins.

That night we stayed at the hotel in Hamadan. The next morning we visited to see the “stone lion” in the city of Hamadan. The lion was said to have been built by Alexander the Great to commemorate the death of his close companion Hephaestion, but was finally demolished in the 10th century. Unfortunately now it looked like a ghostly mass without eyes, nose, and mouth. It was also the reality of history.

The stone lion in the city of Hamadan