Didyma

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Didyma (now Didim in Turkey) was an ancient sanctuary in western Asia Minor with an important oracle site of the god Apollo. The Hellenistic Temple of Apollo is surpassed in its size in Ionia only by the Temple of Herate in the Heraion of Samos and the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. It is one of the best preserved buildings of antiquity. In addition to the Temple of Apollo, there were other buildings in the sanctuary that have only recently been discovered: a Roman theater and the foundations of a temple, which belong to an inscribed temple of Artemis.

Position
The sanctuary is located in today's Didim in the district of the same name of the Turkish province of Aydın.
The ancient Didyma was located on the west coast of Asia Minor near the ancient city of Miletus, to which the distance is about 16 km crow. The natural connection between the two was the sea route. In addition, from the 6th century BC, a road was built off the coast. This “Holy Road” connected Miletus with Didyma. Her name refers to her sacred character as she was intended for processions. The road between Miletus and Didyma also passed the port of Didymas, which is 3 km northwest of the Oracle Shrine and was called Panormos (now Mavişehir).

Name
The origin of the name "Didyma" is controversial: it comes either from the Karian (and thus from the time before the Greek settlement of the west coast of Asia Minor) or from the Greek (didymos means "twin", by which Apollo and Artemis should be meant). On the Peloponnese in the area of the southeastern Argolis there is also a place called Didyma, there referred to two dolines or to the house mountain, which is also named Didymos with two peaks. Perhaps the name was adopted from a place name from the Greek heartland, which is also suspected for other early Greek foundations on the west coast of Asia Minor.

History
Herodotus and Pausanias report that the Ionians immigrated around the turn of the 1st millennium BC and took over an older place of worship where a female nature deity was worshipped in pre-Greek times. So far, however, a foundation period in the 2nd millennium BC is archaeologically undetectable.

The cult legend reports that Leto received her son Apollo of Zeus at the site of the Oracle. Later Apollon appeared to a local shepherd named Branchos, to whom he bestowed the vision. These shepherds traced back to the Karian priestly family of the Branchids, who were namesakes and heads of the sanctuary until the time of the Persian wars. Hence the former name “Branchidai”; Later, the priests of Miletus were installed and belonged to prestigious families of the city.

The Oracle already had a supra-regional reputation in the 7th century BC. This is evidenced on the one hand by Herodotus, who received dedications from the Egyptian pharaoh Necho and the