It was almost nine years ago when I visited the Temple of Apollo at Didim for the very first time, during my very first trip to Turkey. As it was not the age of digital camera yet, I did not take any photos which I could then upload to the web.
Upon my return to Didim (Didyma) in the spring of 2012, not much has changed around the Temple of Apollo itself, but the resort town of Didim has experienced a huge building boom, with new apartments blocks and holiday villages rising out of the horizon at virtually every corner of the town. Except for the immediate surroundings of the Temple of Apollo, the townscape of Didim has undergone such a drastaic facelift, I could hardly recognise the places I had been to back in 2003.
As I had been inside the premises of the Temple before, this time around I decided to just walk around the entire site and took photos from the outside. In a country hit by rampant inflation which hovers around an annual average of more than 7% in the last ten years, it came as a huge pleasant surprise that the entrance fee costs 'just' 3TL in 2012, up from 2TL in 2003. I had expected a far worse outcome, given that entry fees to archaeological sites all over Turkey's western coast have all seen dramatic rise since the early 2000s.
The best time to visit archaeological excavation sites in the western coast of Turkey is in the early springtime and in late autumn, when the weather is fairly stable and warm during the days but not as hot and humid as in the summer months between June and September. And as the tourist season in this part of Turkey only really starts in May, one can avoid clashing with endless throngs of tourists by visiting the sites during the pre-season times.
There are still several old farm houses left standing around the vicinity of the Temple of Apollo. About 10 minutes by car or dolmus from downtown Didim and its main beach resort of Altinkum, the ruins of the Temple of Apollo in Didim are amongst the main tourist attractions for visitors to this part of Turkey. Even as early as late March, busloads of tourists from France and Germany on specially designed package tours have begun to arrive at the gate of the Temple. Within the timespan of about two hours I had counted six busloads of French and German tourists arriving in groups to visit the Temple.
In history, the Temple of Apollo was amongst one of the most important centres of the cult of Apollo worship, as well one of the most authoritative oracles alongside Delphi in Greece. People travelled from all over the Hellenistic world to consult the oracle at Didim, presided over by a female priestess. The photo above shows the remains of the Sacred Way, the road that leads to the gate of the Temple and the oracle. It was said that the Sacred Way was once lined on both sides with statues of the Branchidae priests and priestess that were responsible for the running of the Temple and the intepretation of the oracle.
The irony is, even Apollo himself could not have foreseen the destruction that was to befall his temple in the modern era. For a site as historically significant as the Temple of Apollo in Didim, it still could not escape the fate of falling victim to reckless and careless town plannings by Turkish government officials. Nowadays parts of the Sacred Way was 'paved over' beneath the road that leads from the main bus car park to the entrance of the Temple. A while ago, parts of the site's 2500 years old outer stone wall were destroyed by confused builders who were trying to build a new souvenir kiosk, a project authorized by the provincial government at Aydin, at the entrance to the Temple. One wonders what comes next: high-rise exclusive holiday apartments with views directly overlooking the courtyard of the Temple of Apollo?
The whole site might look small in the photos, but the interior of the temple is actually far bigger and more spacious that it appears from the outside.
It is possible to visit both Didyma and Miletus on the same day if one lives in the resort of Didim or Altinkum. Frequent buses (Didim Seyahat or Soke Seyahat) connects downtown Didim and Altinkum with a village by the name of Akkoy some 5-7km away from the site of ancient Miletus (Milet in Turkish). There are infrequent dolmus services between the village of Balat, one kilometer outside of the site of Miletus, and Akkoy. The Akkoy-Balat-Soke service is limited to two or three in the morning, and perhaps one or two in the early afternoon. If you arrive at Akkoy in the afternoon, it is possible to get a taxi from Akkoy to Miletus for about 20TL, or one can walk all the way from Akkoy to Miletus along scenic countryside road for about 45 minutes. The road is slightly winding but fairly flat. Make sure you take a bottle of water and a hat with you should you decide to go by foot in the summer, as there is little shade on the way and the possibility of getting a sunstroke is very high.
Copyrights@2012. All text and photos by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.
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