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World Trade Center Disaster Has Ancient Parallels

The entire international community of peace-loving people watched the events of September 11 unfold in horror.

The attack on such powerful symbols of national and international pride, have a variety of unfortunate historical parallels.

According to the Reuters news agency which retraced some of these events in history, one such example occurred in 356 B.C. when the massive Temple of Artemis in the city of Ephesus (modern Turkey) -- a gleaming marble monument with more than 100 stone columns -- was reduced to rubble by a single man named Herostratus.

He succeeded in torching the temple and collapsing its massive timber roof in a bid to gain immortal fame. His attack so shocked the citizens of Ephesus that a decree was passed that brought the death penalty to anyone merely uttering the name Herostratus.

Reuters also points out a variety of other similar horrendous acts including:

- The Roman sack of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD

- The destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in 1009 ordered by the Egyptian caliph al-Hakim

- The mongol destruction of Bagdad in 1258

- The destruction of the Aztec city of Tenochitlan by Spanish explorers in 1521

The article also points out that greatness sometimes rises from the ruins. The temple built by the Ephesians to replace their destroyed landmark became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.