I was researching the seven wonders of the ancient world earlier. I found that the Temple of Artemis was burned down by Herostratus in a quest for fame. The article also mentioned the temple was made of marble. This just seemed counter intuitive to me. Am I missing something?
I’m going to take a wild guess that there was a bunch of other stuff in the temple made of wood, cloth, leather, and other flammable things, and that these things fueled the fire, and eventually it got so hot that the marble exploded. I really have no idea how fires work so I could be utterly wrong.
Yeah I didn’t think of the marble cracking. I figured there were flammable things inside, but assumed it just gutted the temple. I thought they would refurbish it afterwards. I just didn’t understand why it would be a total loss. Surely if you spend years building the place, it’s not worth totaling it over losing the interior.
Fire will reduce marble to lime.
My brother once went to a marble quarry to pick up some scrap slabs for a outdoor fire pit. One of the employees told him it wouldn’t work - the heat of a normal fire would make the marble crack and crumble into pieces.
From what I’ve seen of ancient marble temples, etc., the roof of each one was made of wood, and has been gone for centuries. Just an amateur’s viewpoint.
Yeah, it’s tough to make a good roof out of stone-- It’s just too heavy for its strength.
And I’ve read, here & there (notably in De Camp), that the Temple of Artemis was made of wood.
Stone buildings often have wooden pillars, wooden beams above windows and doors, roof framing etc. I doubt even a tile roof could survive a fire.