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Didyma is located near the village of Yenihisar (Yoran) near the town of Söke in the province
of Aydin in the Aegean region. Here one finds an important sanctuary that housed one of
the oracles of Apollo. It was connected to Miletus by sea, and those arriving by ship would land
at the harbour of Panormus and thence follow the Sacred way to Didyma. Until its destruction
by thePersians in 494 B.C. it was administered by the family of the Branchidae, the
descendants of Bronchos, a youth beloved of Apollo. For the last two kilometers the
Sacred Way was lined with seated statues of the male and female members of the
Branchidae family. After his capture of Miletus in 334 B. C. Alexander the Great placed
the administration of the oracle in the hands of the city of Miletus. In 331 B.C. the oracle
proclaimed Alexander "the son of Zeus". In 300 B.C. the Milesians embarked on the
construction of the largest temple in the Greek world. Although work continued until the
middle of the 2nd century A.D. the temple was never finished. Later, a church and other
buildings were constructed, while the Byzantines built a barracks in which troops were garrisoned...
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The buildings were damaged by fire and in the 15th century further damage was
caused by a great earthquake. The Temple of Apollo (Didymaion) was the largest and
wealthiest Ionic temple in Anatolia and was renowned for its holy relics, its treasury,
its sacred spring and sacred laurel grove. Investigations in the Temple of Apollo were
first undertaken in 1834 by the French traveller Charles Texier and the English archaeologist
Charles T. Newton, who had conducted the excavations at Halicarnassus..
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The first Temple of Apollo was built in the Archaic period and the Hellenistic temple
which succeeded this was built on the foundations of the earlier building, materials
from which were used in the construction. The temple we see today is an Ionic structure
measuring 60 x 118 m, with a dipteral arrangement of two rows of columns with 21 on each
side and 10 at each end. The columns are of various styles with pedestals adorned with reliefs.
These columns support an architrave surmounted by a frieze decorated with acanthus leaves
and Gorgon (Medusa) heads. The high pronaos at the top of a monumental flight of steps
leads into a naos with two columns, which gives access to the sacred area or cella in the
form of an open courtyard surrounded by high walls with columns and containing a small Ionic
temple which housed the statue of the god. Didyma was never a large city and its fame
was closely connected with the .
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The pronaos, or forecourt, to which access is given by thirteen steps, contains twelve columns.
The ceiling decorations were of great magnificence, and the columns of quite exceptional
height. It was here that the suppliants waited for the oracle of Apollo.
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| Pictures of Didyma - Temple of Apollon |
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Historical Places 
