GoGeometry The Golden Rectangle and the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

Successive Golden Rectangles dividing a Golden Rectangle into squares (The Temple of Artemis, hand-coloured engraving by Martin Heemskerck, 1498-1574).

The Temple of Artemis

Golden rectangle's rule,
Artemis temple stands in awe,
Divine proportion.


A golden rectangle
is a rectangle whose side lengths are in the golden ratio, one-to-phi, that is, approximately 1:1.618. A distinctive feature of this shape is that when a square section is removed, the remainder is another golden rectangle, that is, with the same proportions as the first. Square removal can be repeated infinitely, which leads to an approximation of the golden or Fibonacci spiral.

Fibonacci numbers (0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34...) are a sequence of numbers named after Leonardo of Pisa, known as Fibonacci. The first number of the sequence is 0, the second number is 1, and each subsequent number is equal to the sum of the previous two numbers of the sequence itself.

The Temple of Artemis, also known less precisely as Temple of Diana, was a temple dedicated to Artemis completed in its most famous phase, around 550 BC at Ephesus (in present-day Turkey) under the Achaemenid dynasty of the Persian Empire. Nothing remains of the temple, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Temple of Artemis was not the first on its site, where evidence of a sanctuary dates as early as the Bronze Age.  

 

The Temple of Artemis