Didim Temple of Apollo

The Temple of Apollo at Didyma is counted among the best-preserved temples of the ancient world and is the third largest Ionic temple ever built. Scientific excavations between 1906 and 1913 brought it fully to light, and parts of it have been raised again. A protective wall around the site and some rebuilt architectural elements date to that first campaign.

Its plan is dipteral, with a double row of columns around the outside. The one non-canonical element is the open inner courtyard, which has no stone paving. This courtyard held a sacred spring and a small shrine (naiskos), for the temple's special role was that of an oracle. Construction began in the fourth century BC and the building was never completed. An earlier temple from the sixth century BC, famous in its time, was destroyed by the Persians in the early fifth century BC, and its foundations can still be seen in the courtyard. Later the naiskos gave way to a Christian basilica, and an earthquake ruined both.

Look out for the carved Medusa. The only mortal of the three Gorgon sisters, she was thought to turn onlookers to stone, so the Greeks put her head on shields, temples and armour as a protector. Here she guards the temple.