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Travel Ephesus |
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Around Ephesus |
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Didyma |
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 Didyma
was a cult center for the city of Miletos It is
located in the present-day village of Yeniköy, about
fifteen kilometers from the site of Miletos. In
ancient times, it was connected to its mother city
by a sacred road that had statues located on either
side of it.
The Didymaion-the temple to Apollo and its oracle at Didyma-was of
considerable repute among the ancients. German
archaeologists excavating at the site have shown
that the earliest sanctuary here was built in the
8th century B.C. and that it was enlarged into an
enormous temple around 560 B.C. After their bloody
suppression of the lonian rebellion,
 the
Persians sacked and laid waste to Miletos (which
they regarded as the instigator) and the Didymaion
in 494 B.C. It was during this assault that the
temple's cult statue of Apollo was carried off to
Ecbatana. After Alexander the Great defeated the
Persians in 334 B.C., the lonian cities regained
their independence and work was begun on
reconstructing the Apollo temple. Around 300 B.C.,
King Seleukos I of Syria, who then controlled
western Anatolia, had the bronze statue of Apollo
brought back from Ecbatana to be installed in the
new temple, to whose construction he also provided
monetary assistance. The new building was designed
by the architects Paionios and Daphnis. The former
was from Ephesos and was one of those who worked on
the Artemision there.
The temple was planned on a much grander
scale than the original sanctuary and indeed it was
the third largest religious structure in the ancient
world being surpassed only by the Ephesian
Artemision and a temple on this island of Samos. The
Hellenistic temple measured 109.34 by 51.13 meters
and columns.
It was set on a seven-stepped platform
measuring 3.5 meters high and in the center of the
east front there was a separate flight of fourteen
steps.
The construction of so huge a building
naturally took a long time and continued during the
3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. One section was only
completed in Roman times. While the temple suffered
repeatedly from fires and earthquakes, it sustained
the worst damage in an earthquake in 1493.
The columns still standing measure 2.40
meters in diameter and 19.70 meters in height. The
double row of columns surrounding the temple was
covered over with a marble roof as was the temple
proper. The central courtyard measured 53.63 by
21.71 meters and was the site of the Archaic-period
temple. During Hellenistic times, a small temple
(called a naiskos) was built here to house the
bronze statue of Apollo. Its surrounding walls were
25 meters in height and decorated with gryphons. The
cella was unroofed. East of the adyton (sacred
courtyard) is a great stairway of twenty-four steps
measuring 15.20 meters wide. This flight of steps
leads up to a windowless, three-doored hall where
the oracle was written down and delivered. The hall
measured 20 meters high and had a marble roof. East
of the chamber, a door 5.63 meters wide and 14
meters high leads to the pronaos. The pronouncement
of the oracles could only be listened to from
outside the chamber. Stairways led to the upper
floor. On either side of the entrance are doors
measuring 2.25 meters high and 1.2 meters wide that
each connects to a narrow, vaulted tunnel leading to
the adyton. At the far end of each corridor is a
small propylon-like room.
After viewing what is unquestionably one of
the most impressive temples of the ancient world,
with take our leave with amazement. |
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Ephesus Yesterday & Today |
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