The Temple of Apollo

Sunday we went to Didim, my uncle has a house there and my mum will stay there for a week, so after a 3 hour trip we went to the temple of Apollo.

The Apollo Sanctuary has been constructed between 334 B.C. till the 4th Century A.D. A church has been incorporated in the 5th Century, a huge demolition happened by an earthquake around 1500.

Here you can see the columns fallen down.


Everywhere are amazing details, like reliefs depicting Artemis, Leto, Zeus and Apollo.

To get inside you past a tunnel.

Al thought we are almost in November it was extremely hot, about 35 Celsius (95 F).

We saw a lot of turtles walking around, sometimes it looked like the stones where moving.

A small precaution against graffiti (and it helps)...

...only graffiti from a long time ago.

Originally a series of Medusa heads would have appeared in the frieze on top of the tripartite architrave. Depictions of monsters like Medusa served to protect temples from harm.

And some information giving their:

With a length of 120m and a height of 25m, the so-called 'younger Didymeion' was one of the largest temples of the ancient world. The ruins preserved today gives a striking impression of the quality of the architectural workmanship required to build it. Despite being under construction over a very long period of time, the temple was never completely finished. Only 72 of the intended 122 columns were actually erected, and some of those standing are missing final decorative elements. For example, one of the three upright standing columns is missing its fluting and the entablature has been finished only on the front face of the building.
Those pieces which have been preserved still show outstanding quality of architectural decoration.