Turkey Property | Didyma (Didim)

Didyma was the sacred centre of an entire culture, one of the most important religious centres in all of Greek Anatolia and a city that survived the fall of several empires.

Located on the Aegean and originally accessible only by boat, a sacred path once led pilgrims to the Didymaion, the temple to Apollo and its oracle at Didyma, as well as to the temple of Artemis.

Disputes exist as to whether Didyma - twin in Greek - refers to the twin temples or to the twin deities of Apollo and Artemis, but either way, the site was sacred to the inhabitants of the nearby city of Miletus. They travelled from there by boat into the Aegaean and would have proceeded down a walkway lined with statues of the Branchidae family.

Both men and women from this family were represented as they administered the city, claiming the right from their ancestor Branchos, whom they say Apollo had favoured.

Disaster first befell this sacred city following the crushing of the Ionian Revolt by the Persian king Xerxes in 494 BC, destroying the 8^th century temple that had been enlarged in 560 BC. He believed that Miletus was behind the revolt and wanted to crush their holy sanctuary.

Xerxes carried off the bronze statue of Apollo to Ecbatana in the hope it would end the worship in Didyma. However, Alexander the Great liberated Ionia and the rest of Anatolia from the Persians in 334 BC and on their independence, the Didymanians once more built a temple to Apollo and his oracle.

Ultimate embellishment came around 300 BC, when king Seleukos I of the Seleucid empire had the statue of Apollo returned. Architects Paionios and Daphnis were commissioned to design a temple that would become the third biggest in the region.

Visitors who have been to Ephesus may notice a similarity in design between the temples and this would be because Paionios had worked on the large temple of Artemis there. Built on a grand scale, the temple had 124 columns on a seven-step platform. So grand was it that the work continued throughout the second and third centuries BC, with earthquakes hindering the work, meaning that it was not until the Roman period that it was completed.

As with many temples, the arrival of Christianity helped speed decay and disuse of the site. However, it survived, even past the fall of the Byzantine empire and it was not until the earthquake of 1493 that the temple collapsed to its present ruin.

Despite this, visitors can still stroll along the massive columns and gaze at ancient stone faces. Tourists can imagine what it must have felt to be in the massive hall as remaining, standing columns give lie to the fact that the rooms were once 25 metres (82 feet) tall. They can also see the stone griffins and visit the spot where pronouncements from the oracle were uttered to the masses.

Didyma is near to Didim, in the village of Yenikoy, about ten miles from the site of Miletus, another popular spot for tourists Turkey property in and around this area provides you with so much to see and do and is a stunning place to own a holiday home. .

Turkey has a wealth of archaeology and historical sites ready for discovery. Click here to view the main places of interest.