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Didim ( Didyma )

Didim is a small holiday resort on the Aegean Coast of Turkey. Didim is about 150 km away from Izmir and can be reached by local minibuses both from Izmir or Bodrum airports. Didim takes its name from the antic city of Didyma. Didim is a very popular holiday resort with its long sandy beaches, watersports facilities, a waterpark, Didyma antic city ruins and the Temple of Apollo at Didyma. Didim neighbors the Bafa Lake National Park, the Buyuk Menderes River (historic name Maeander) and antic cities Miletos and Priene.

Didyma was an ancient Greek City located just outside the modern Didim. Didyma had never been a large city, its fame was rooted from the existence of the sacred spring of the city and the Temple of Apollon. Didyma was connected to Miletus by sea. Those arriving by ship would land at the Panarmus port and follow the famous the Sacred Way to Didyma. Didyma was administered by the Branchidae family which claimed to be the priests of Apollon. Didyma was completely destructed by the Persians in 494 BC. About 160 years later, Didyma was again captured by Alexander the Great who placed the administration of the city in the hands of the city of Miletus. In 300 BC the Mileasians started to build the largest temple in the Greek World. Although the construction continued until the 2nd century AD, the great temple was never completely finished. In the following years a church and barracks for the Byzantine army were built. A great earthquake in the 15th century devastated the settlement.

The first Apollon Temple was built in the Archaic period (8th century BC). Its successor, the Hellenistic temple was built on the foundations of the earlier one. The temple we see today is built in the Ionia period which measures 60 x 120 meters.

Two well-known villages administered by Didim are Altinkum and Akbuk. Altinkum (meaning Golden Sand in Turkish) has 2 main beaches. Both towns, Altinkum and Akbuk offer a quite, peaceful and lively holiday with great beaches.