Apollo Temple, Didyma The magnificent Temple of Apollo at Didyma was the third largest of all ancient classical temples and home to a famous oracle mentioned by Homer in the Iliad. Though there has been a temple on this site for much longer the bulk of the present building dates from the 3rd century BC though building carried on through the Roman period and was in fact never finished. Today, and in contrast to some of it's larger siblings (Ephesus and Samos) it remains in a good state of preservation; only three of the columns remain complete but the rest of the structure is remarkably complete up to almost half it's original height. We thus have a better impression of the internal layout of the sanctuary here than at almost any other temple of the ancient world. The scale is enormous, and though most of the columns are mere stumps they give a good impression of the sheer scale of the completed edifice. Many of the column bases at the main east facade have ornate decorative mouldings. At the west end (the back wall of the temple) a collapsed column has been left lying where it fell. The interior of the Temple is entered from the portico via two tunnel-like passages that emerge in the 'cella', the heart of the sanctuary that in this case was left open to the sky like courtyard. For more see below:- www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/didyma / VFL.Ru