Didyma Ancient City
The first settlement traces in Didim, which is one of the most prominent tourist districts of the province of Aydin in recent years, stretches back to 16,000 years ago in Milat. Ionlar, Persians, Romans, Byzantines, and then this land that has been home to the Turks, has witnessed many history for about 160 centuries. Although there is no satisfactory information about the phases that Didim lived before the Hellenistic ages; The locality has been an archaeological excavation scene that sheds light on the periods after Alexander the Great.
Ionlar, who held the present Aegean region as a residence for them, lives as a union of 12 'city states' (consisting of Miletos, Myos, Priene, Ephesus, Kolophon, Lebedos, Teos, Erythria, Klazomenia, Phokia, Samos and Khios) . These 'city states', established at the intersection of trade routes of their own times, have been enriched in a short time thanks to agriculture and maritime trade. One feature that distinguishes Ionian states from their masters is that they embrace writers, philosophers and scholars who will feed their cultural accumulation. In this respect, the Ions have established the most advanced administrative and civilization in all Western Anatolia and even Anatolian civilizations.
In the field of philosophy in cities and regions including Ionian civilization, Anaxagoras, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Antisthenes, Aristotle (Aristotle), Democritus, Sinopro Diogenes, Epicurus (Epicure), Empedocles, Heraclitus, Leucippus, Gorgias, Parmenides, Plato, Protagoras, Pythagoras, Socrates (Socrates), Thales and Zeno.
Aeschylus, Aesop (Ezop), Aristophanes, Euripides, Herodotus (Heredot), Hesiod, Homer, Lucian, Menander, Anastacia are among the authors living in these cities which are located in olive, kocayemiş, carob, Pindar, Plutarch, Polybius, Sappho, Sophocles (Sophocles), Megaried Theognis Thucydides and Xenophon.
The Ion piers on the Aegean coast, like lace, are waiting for the fishermen to approach him by their craft while the other side are Lycurgus from Alexander the Great, Alcibiades from Leonidas, Pericles from Demosthenes, Themistocles from Solon, Archimedes (Archimedes), Hippocrates (Hippocrates), Aspasia to Croton Milo, and also the people who have personally led the writing of the history.
The first excavations in Didim during the Ottoman Empire were carried out by the British in 1858 under the presidency of Archaeologist Newton. In 1905, the excavations initiated under the direction of Ms. Elizabeth Weigand were maintained for the first time until 1937, based on systematic bases. During this period, a large part of the temple which was buried under the ground was uncovered for the first time. The next excavations were formed in the organizations of German archaeologists.
According to the investigations made in the ruins revealed in these excavations; Didymaion was first converted into a settlement centered on the site of a shrine where the place of residence of a hermit linked to Miletus and his gods and the worshipers of his faithful worshipers. In the archaeological and anthropological examinations made, the archaic temple was built by the Ionians in BC. VI. It is documented that it started in the middle of the century. The temple we see today is built on the site of this archaic temple, which is smaller than its successor, and its construction began immediately after the victory of Alexander the Great against Persians. However, again according to these findings, this glorious temple, reaching three daily columns and standing pillars, was never completed due to various reasons.
The 'Twin Brothers' who bet on the word 'Didyma' in Greek are God Apollo and Goddess Artemis. As it is known, the place known as Artemis Temple in Ephesus in the name of Artemis is one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. One of the important antiquities in the air is the 'Sacred Way', which is designed as a straight line between Miletus and the Apollo Temple in Didim (although it may not come up in a concrete sense), and the 'Artemis Sanctuary' at the end.
