Didyma, on the coast of Ionia, was the largest and most significant sanctuary in the territory of the great classical city Miletus. It contained a temple and oracle of Apollo, the Didymaion. Next to Delphi, Didyma was the most renowned oracle of the Hellenic world, first mentioned among the Greeks in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, but an establishment preceding literacy and even the Hellenic colonization of Ionia. The 6th century Didymaion, enclosed its smaller predecessor. Its treasury was enriched by gifts from Croesus. To approach it, visitors would follow the Sacred Way to Didyma, about 17 km long. Along the way, were ritual way stations, and statues of members of the Branchidae family, male and female, as well as animal figures. Some of these statues, dating to the 6th century B.C. are now in the British Museum, taken by Charles Newton in the 19th century. The ruins of Didyma are located at a short distance to the northwest of modern Didim in Aydin Province, Turkey. |  |