Two of the most important and largest Archaic temples were the temples of Artemis in Ephesus and the temples of Hera in Samos. The temple of Ephesus, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was built around 560 B.C., burnt by Herostratus in 356 B.C. and rebuilt in the era of Alexander the Great by the architect Deinocrates. King Croesus of Lydia financing the construction of most of its columns decisively contributed to the construction of the Archaic temples. Both Artemision and Heraion were the first truly large temples with a double pteron. It is said that the Samian architect Theodorus worked on both temples. On the Heraion he cooperated with the Samian Rhoikos, on the Artemision with the Cretan Chersifron. Heraion was also destroyed by a fire about 30 years after its construction.

A large part of the materials of both buildings were used in the construction of later temples on the same position, resulting in the loss of many details about the design and the decorative elements of the initial temples. Apparently both temples had 8 or 9 columns on its narrow sides and 21 on its long ones. The whole length of Artemision must have exceeded 100 metres. The intercolumnium distance of the central columns of the facade reached, in both temples, 8 metres, but was gradually reduced between the columns of the edges. The more recent Heraion, which was built on the site of the old one after 530 B.C., was the largest in the ancient Greek world with around 110 metres length and 50 metres width. The pronaos and the cella are divided by two colonnades into three aisles. Its architectonic design, which resembled that of the earlier temple, had a double pteron and 24 columns on the long sides, 8 at the facade and 9 on the other side.

The third large temple of the Archaic Ionia, the temple of Apollo at Didyma, was constructed between 540 and 520 B.C. and was destroyed by the Persians in 494 B.C. According to its restored plan it was a dipteral temple with 21×8 columns. It had relief forms at the base of the columns and high relief sphinxes at the four edges of the architrave. Its interior was not roofed and comprised a second sanctuary, which was a small prostyle in antis temple. The whole temple was rebuilt with many additions during Hellenistic times. One of the oldest examples of the Ionic order in Cyclades is the hekatompedos at Yria in Naxos, which was built around 580 to 570 B.C. It was a four-columned prostyle temple and had an adytum for the celebration of mystic worship. From some other temples in Naxos and Paros the marble frames survive, with a height that reaches 6 metres.