The temple of Apollo The Hellenistic temple had two predecessors. The first sacred building dedicated to Apollo was erected around 700 BC by Ionian Greeks. It was probably a
hekatompedos, which means 100 feet long. The width of this first sekos measured 10 meters. 'Sekos' is Greek for ‘courtyard’; we can therefore deduce that the late
geometric temple and its successors had never been roofed. The oldest temple of Apollo surrounded the sacred spring and the sacred laurel tree. This spring and tree formed the centre of the sanctuary for more than 1000 years. From the middle of the 6th century BC the Milesians raised a new temple and constructed a new altar for Apollo. Alas, of this temple only the foundations of the sekos wall survived. Though as a lot of late Archaic column fragments were found it was likely a Dipteros, which means the sekos was surrounded by two rows of columns. These
Ionic columns were partly ornamented with reliefs like the columns of the
temple of Artemis in Ephesus. In the western half of the sekos the remains of a small temple were found, the so-called Naiskos, which housed the cult statue of Apollo. The sacred spring in its original location was already dry by the 6th c. BC and had diverted its position to the eastern half of the sekos. In front of this late Archaic temple was a circular building erected to surround the altar for Apollo, which, according to Pausanias, was made of blood and ashes of the sacrificed animals. This circular building with the conical altar inside was used until the end of antiquity, whilst to the east and south of the temple stood a stoa for storing some of the famous donations of Apollo. The ramifications for the temple after the Ionians lost the naval battle off of the islands of Lade in 494 BC were that most of the buildings of Didyma were heavily damaged by the Persians. The planning for the new Hellenistic temple started after 334 BC. The Milesians resolved to build one of the greatest temples ever made. This goal was not really reached, but they built a temple with a unique plan. The temple of Apollo was clearly planned according to ritual requirements. Though at this present moment, the exact usage and function can only possibly be a matter of conjecture. The temple certainly attained the ambition of being one of the largest ancient temples ever built, its
crepidoma with 7 steps measures almost 60 by 120 meters and the
stylobate 51 by 109 meters. The temple building itself was surrounded by a double file of Ionic columns, each one of them 19.70 meters high. This consisted of 10 columns along the shorter sides and the 21 columns filling the longer sides, though not all of these were erected even by the end of antiquity. Above the columns followed the
architraves with the
frieze. The frieze is especially famous as it housed the impressively monumental heads of
Medusa. head The entrance was at the east side. With a
pronaos of three rows of four columns, the approaching visitor passed through a regularized grove formed by the columns. The door usually leading to a cella was replaced by a blank wall with a large upper opening through which one could glimpse the upper part of the naiskos in the inner court (in inscriptions the inner court is referred to as "sekos" or "
adyton"). The impassable threshold of this door stands 1.5 meters above the floor of the
pronaos, while the entire door reaches a height of 14 meters. The entry route lay down either of two long constricted sloping tunnels built within the thickness of the walls and giving access to the inner court, still open to the sky but isolated from the world by the 25 meters high walls of the sekos. This was the location of the oracle spring, the laurel tree and the naiskos with the cult statue. The foundations of the naiskos are 8.24 meters wide and 14.23 meters long. This Ionic
prostylos was built around 300 BC. It is famed because of the superior high quality of its ornamentation. The naiskos with the cult statue of Apollo is depicted on
Imperial coins of
Miletus. The sacred oracle spring was not situated in the naiskos, but in the eastern half of the sekos. It was found beneath the early Byzantine church. The inner walls of the sekos were articulated by
pilasters. The
capitals of them are ornamented with
griffins and flowers. Among them a long frieze with griffins decorated the whole sekos. Between the two tunnel exits in the sekos a monumental staircase leads up to three openings into a room whose roof was supported by two columns on the central cross-axis. Among these three doors were placed two
Corinthian half columns, whose spectacular capitals originally survived but during the First World War they were unfortunately destroyed. The room with the two central columns opened to the east to the great impassable portal. To the north and south of this hall two stairwells existed. In inscriptions they were called "labyrinthoi", probably because of their ceiling decoration showing a
meander pattern. These labyrinthoi lead to the roof of the temple and their function is not yet clear. The oracular procedure so well documented at Delphi is almost unknown at Didyma and must be reconstructed on the basis of the temple's construction. The priestess sat above the oracle spring and was inspired by Apollo. The prophet announced the oracle probably from the room with the high and impassable threshold. The answers were delivered, as in Delphi, in classical hexameters. But at Delphi, nothing was written; at Didyma, inquiries and answers were written and some inscriptions with them were found. In Didyma a small structure, the Chresmographion featured in this process; it was situated outside the temple because according to inscriptions it was used for storing architectural members for the temple there. Although the construction work continued for over 600 years the temple of Apollo was never completed. But the main body of the temple itself had been completed around 100 BC. In the following centuries
Miletus continued to erect the columns of the
colonnade. The columns of the eastern façade were built during the reign of emperor
Hadrian. The western facade was completed too and some columns on the flanks. The roof was also never entirely finished; the temple lacked the
pediments. There were also other parts of this huge temple which remained unfinished. Therefore, this building is totally unique in
Greek architecture. It is like a handbook on this topic which informs you about all the different stages of constructing a temple. When something is unfinished it becomes easier to see the process of construction. This "book" begins in the quarries of Miletus at the former Latmian Gulf (today Bafa Gölü) and leads from the harbours there to the harbour of Didyma (former Panormos, today Mavisehir). From there along the road to the sanctuary and then into the sanctuary. At all these places unfinished architectural members of the temple are visible. The inner walls of the sekos remained unpolished too. That's why Lothar Haselberger could discover there the Hellenistic construction drawings. This discovery and interpretation led to some important information about the planning and the building phase of the Apollo temple. In particular, the very famous one of the draft of a column of the temple of Apollo is on the northern sekos wall. On the western wall inside the sekos the inscribed pictorial instructions of the pediment of a small temple is scratched in. Because the inscribed architectural members are similar in style to the naiskos of Apollo, Haselberger and other scholars thought that it could have been the design drawings of the naiskos. But one problem persisted unsolved, because the drawn pediment is over 2 meters wider than the actual one of the naiskos of Apollo. This perplexing enigma was eventually unravelled in 2012. It had been clear that the drawing on the western sekos wall would also suit to the rediscovered fragments of architectural members from the temple of Artemis also. So the Hellenistic temple of Artemis was designed with Apollo's naiskos as a model, drawn upon the wall behind the naiskos in the 2nd century BC. The only existing problem was to find a foundation with the width of the drawing (10,71 meters). When constructing the temple of Apollo at Didyma, white marble was most prominently used in the visible parts of the building such as the outer parts of the walls and the ionic columns. Utilising a multi-method approach including petrology and isotope analyses of carbon and oxygen, researchers have found four major marble sources which correlates to different phases of construction. During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Milesian marble that originated around Lake Bafa was most widely used. However, after a short hiatus in construction, Thasian Marble, which originated from Aliki on Thasos Island, was imported and unsystematically alternated with Milesian marble in building the column drums to speed up construction. This source of marble was then replaced by importing Herakleian marble from Lake Bafa just before the dodekastylos was finished. In the Imperial period, Proconnesian marble from Marmara Island was used as a substitution for local Milesian marble. For less visible parts of the building such as the massive foundations of the stairs, the cross-linked foundation piers under peristalsis and walls and the cores of the walls, limestone was used. The estimated volume of limestone needed for its construction significantly exceeded 12,200 m³ or 33.000 metric tons, which was a major industrial achievement for its time. The limestone used in building the temple originated from the few previously known small quarries from the south-western Milesian Peninsula as well as smaller inconspicuous pits that covers most of the limestone plateau in the vicinity of the building. The limestone has shown geological characteristics of being dense, locally cavernous with a whitish to cream color and are generally fossil-poor. This makes it a good building material that could protect the architecture from weathering.
The temple of Artemis The foundations of the temple of
Artemis were discovered in 2013 directly behind the mosque and former
Greek Orthodox church of Saint
Charalambos 100 m north of the temple of
Apollo. In contrast to the temple of Apollo the foundation of the temple of Artemis is orientated exactly East-West, as it is common for most
Greek temples. The remains of the foundations show that the temple had the dimensions of 31,60 meters long and 11,50 meters wide. The extant limestone blocks prove that the temple of Artemis had three rooms. Parts of its superstructure came not to light in situ. After the excavations the foundations were reinterred after each campaign, so today nothing is visible of them. It is not altogether clear if the temple of Artemis was orientated to the east or to the west because its
altar has not yet been found. During excavations at the east side came no remains of the altar to light, and the area in front of the west side has not yet been excavated. So it is more likely that the temple was orientated to the west because generally the altar was situated in front of
Greek temples. This supposition is strengthened by the fact that the two most famous temples of Artemis in Asia Minor, at
Ephesus and at
Magnesia ad Maeandrum, were also faced to the west. During excavations in 1994, to the south of the mosque, an
Ionic architrave and
frieze blocks of an unknown building had been excavated. These blocks of white
marble bear almost the same pattern and size as architrave and frieze from the
Hellenistic naiskos of Apollo. Therefore, it seemed likely they belonged to the elusive and tantalising temple of Artemis because of the twinning stylistic components. But this idea was only proven by Ulf Weber in 2012. The architrave and frieze blocks from the Artemis temple are deeper and wider than the ones from Apollo's naiskos. A
cornice block (consisting of geison and sima), already found in 1909, but first investigated in 2012 belongs to them. It was the keystone to solve the riddle. For architrave, frieze and cornice are derived from a wider temple than the naiskos. Further they match perfectly to the construction drawing in the sekos. Finally this construction drawing matches the proportions of the new temple foundation. That means the Ionic temple of Artemis had four front columns and its length was exactly three times longer than its width. Another difference between the naiskos of Apollo and the temple of his sister Artemis concerns the time of their construction. The ornamentation of the naiskos can stylistically be dated around 300 BC, but the ornaments of the temple of Artemis date in the 2nd century BC. Hence the date of the new temple is known, but though it seems likely that it was dedicated to Artemis there remains speculation, especially as no inscription was found on the architectural members? Older inscriptions from the 6th century BC show that beside Apollo, both Artemis and
Hekate had been worshipped in Didyma. Another inscription from the 3rd century BC mentions the cult statue of Artemis. In later inscriptions reconstruction works of the temple of Artemis are reported. Therefore, there can be no doubt that Artemis had her own temple in Didyma. She was the main deity beside Apollo, and to no other deity worshipped in Didyma is a temple documented. Furthermore, Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo. All this leads to the conclusion that this temple designed according to Apollo's naiskos must be the one of Artemis and it stood originally on the promontory north of the temple of Apollo. In the end these results contradict Klaus Tuchelt's view that the sanctuary of Artemis was situated west of the sacred way, as Helga Bumke had some years ago already suggested.
Sacred Way with the Roman baths The Sacred Way inside the sanctuary of Apollo was excavated under Klaus Tuchelt. He found the remains of different buildings from the
Archaic period along the wide and plastered road. To the west of the road the rock comes to the surface. Situated there were some wells, basins and small water canals. Their usage is not yet really clear, but they could have had a cultic function. Along the road during the
Roman period stood a
stoa. It also flanked the passageway to the
Roman baths. So the
stoai together with the water facilities make it more likely that the complex, of the so-called „Felsbarre", served for profane reasons. One option would be a function similar to a Roman
macellum (food market), as proposed by Helga Bumke. The Roman baths at the end of an alley were erected in the 2nd century AD. Rudolf Naumann investigated them and found impressive mosaics in the entrance hall, the
apodyterium. It was followed by the
frigidarium, the
tepidarium and
caldarium. The baths were used until the 6th/7th century AD, as were other buildings along the Sacred Way.
Stadium Parallel to the southern
colonnade of the temple of Apollo was situated a
stadium which dates from the
Hellenistic period, though athletic
agons were probably held there earlier. The steps of the temple's
crepidoma served as seats for the spectators on the northern side of the stadium. Upon these seven steps are engraved many „topos inscriptions". That means the spectators marked their seats engraving their names. As these inscriptions are also found on the southern part of the western colonnade it seems likely that the stadium was longer than the south side of the temple of Apollo. The average stadium length was usually about 190 meters (one
stadion). The seating on the southern side of the stadium consisted of tiers of limestone blocks with seven or eight steps. The remains of a device for starting the contests are extant near the southeast corner of the Apollo temple. Astonishingly, the blocks of the southern tier of the stadium were reused for the
cavea of the
theatre in the second half of the 1st century AD. One can but assume that the music
agons became more important and influential than the athletic ones.
Theatre The remains of the Greek
theatre came to light during 2010 and 2011. The walls, stairs and steps of the
cavea were a totally unexpected find. Evidence that the theatre arose in the second half of the 1st century AD is indicated by the find of a
coin dating from the time of the Roman emperor
Nero and a lot of sherds from the same period. Then the cavea had a diameter of 52 meters and could receive 3000 spectators. Later in the first half of the 2nd century AD it was enlarged to a diameter of 61 meters and 4000 spectators would have found a seat. At this present time it has not been possible to excavate the foundations of the
stage building, but the architectural members of a building typical for a scene building are known since the beginning of the 20th century. After the cavea of the theatre was excavated Helga Bumke suggested that the
entablature of the so-called „Tabernakel" building was part of the scene building. The inscribed dedications on the
architraves reveals that the stage building was consecrated to the gods
Apollo,
Artemis,
Leto,
Zeus, the emperor
Hadrian and the people of
Miletus. But it is not known who dedicated this building. As emperor Hadrian visited Miletus and Didyma in 129 AD the scene building was probably complete by that time. The winners of the
musical contests, organized to worship Apollo, were honoured in several inscriptions from the
Roman period. These competitions took place in the newly found theatre, but it can be assumed that a
Hellenistic predecessor existed. An inscription from the beginning 3rd century BC reports that
Antiochos I received a
seat of honour during the
choir contests at Didyma.
Other Buildings The ancient inscriptions of Didyma testify that many more buildings existed there in
antiquity than the mentioned ones above. During the many years of excavations hundreds of architectural fragments came to light which could be not allocated to a known building or monument. One of them is a
Doric stoa from the 2nd century BC, and another one the so-called „Prophetenhaus" or chresmographeion, a smaller Doric building also from the 2nd century BC. The search of the foundations of these and other structures is difficult because the area around Apollo's temple is closely built-up. Therefore, it is almost impossible to use
geophysical prospecting methods for the search. Interpreting the written sources and old maps make it possible to find places with ancient foundations. This was done by Helga Bumke in the case of the foundation of the temple of Artemis and another
Hellenistic foundation southeast of the temple of Apollo in 2013. This squarish substructure measuring 11 meters by 12 meters consisted of limestone blocks, but no superstructure came to light. It may have had a cultic function because it is characterised by the same curious orientation as the temple of Apollo (or it was used as a
propylon). Above the substructure was a small church built in
Byzantine times which has seen several reconstructions up until the 19th century.
Churches The most famous
church of Didyma stood in the sekos of the temple of
Apollo. Its final remains were demolished in 1925. This church was made with blocks from the naiskos and other small buildings from outside the temple around 500 AD. After a serious earthquake in the 7th century AD, a reconstruction of the three-aisled
basilica was erected. In the 11th century AD, another earthquake occurred and the church in the sekos collapsed. This was replaced by only a small chapel which was used for the
Christian cult. Another early Christian church was constructed 100 meters north of the temple of Apollo, at approximately the same location where today the mosque stands. This church also employed the use of ancient blocks salvaged from the temple of
Artemis nearby and the previously mentioned
Doric stoa above. Its later history is not yet clear, but in 1830 their remains were used to erect a new church (dedicated to Saint
Charalambos) for the recently arrived Greek settlers. In 1924 it was converted into a mosque for the
Muslims just transported from North Greece during the
Exchange of Populations. More chapels or churches surely existed in
Byzantine Didyma because it was the seat of a
bishopric, but about this age little is known. Some of these Byzantine churches either fell into disrepair or used as animal pens after the area was abandoned in the 16th century and reused by the newly settled Greeks at the end of the 18th century when the quarrying of the temple marble became a profitable trade. ==See also==