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Modern Description: The sanctuary of Miletus outside the city and linked to it by a processional way over 20 km long. There was a settlement at Didyma in the Hellenistic period.
Development of the twin cult of Apollo and Artemis, which is echoed in the toponym (didymos = twin), began in the 7th century BC. The sanctuary-oracle of Apollo was organized around the nucleus of a small temple (naiskos) that surrounded the sacred spring (c. 600 BC). It was renovated around the mid-6th century BC and developed into the colossal dipteral temple of Apollo of Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Roman imperial times. Singular features of the temple are the open-air cella (adyton), the huge ceremonial portal, the entry to the adyton along arch-roofed corridors, the enigmatic staircases in the room after the pronaos, with relief labyrinth pattern on the ceiling.
The temenos of Artemis, to the N of the sanctuary of Apollo, developed c. 600 BC. Until its destruction in the 4th-6th century it included fountains, repositories (apothetai) and wells. It was delimited by porticoes from the sacred way in the 2nd-1st century BC.
Half way along the sacred way there is a 6th-century BC sanctuary of an aristocratic family, with areas for ritual banquets, an exedra with 10 seated male and female statues. Analogous statues known as the 'Branchidae', nowadays in the British Museum, were found in the area of the sacred way many years ago.
Early Christian basilicas have been excavated in the area of the ancient city. After AD 392 a Christian basilica was built inside the temple of Apollo. E of the sacred way are remains of Early Byzantine buildings.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didyma
Wikidata ID: Q671358
Trismegistos Geo: 3679
Manto: 10267115

Info: Archaeological Atlas of the Aegean

(Archaeological Atlas of the Aegean, Ministry of the Aegean)

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