From Miletus we hopped back on our shuttle and went to Didyma. Our tour took us to a local Turkish restaurant where we ate a traditional lunch. There was a lot of food at a buffet, most of which I did not recognize! We thought this was the meal, but then they brought each of us an entire place of food with the main course. Steven and I opted for the chicken, but most had the fish. I was taken aback when they brought our each plate with an entire fish on it, head and all!
Didyma is famous for the Temple of Apollo, which resembles the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. The word Didyma means 'twins' and Greek mythologists believe it to be the meeting place of Zeus and Leto to have their twins Apollo and Artemis.
There were originally 122 columns, now only 3 remain, each 60 feet tall.
At the entrance of the ruins, there are three remaining reliefs, the far left is the head of Medusa.
As you can see behind me in the picture below, there are two different sizes of stairs. Since the temple was built for the Greek god, Apollo, the larger stairs are for gods and the smaller stairs are for humans.
The temple was built and torn down several times. It was originally constructed then torn down centuries later by Darius I of Persia. The temple was rebuilt under the orders of Alexander the Great, only to be destroyed by an earthquake. At this point, Christianity was becoming more popular in the area and the temple was not rebuilt.
Is that Rocky running up the temple steps?
Not only did we see Rocky, but we actually spotted a Greek god and goddess.
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