A slow process which eventually meant that the nearby Latmian Gulf developed from a bay into a lake (today Bafa Gölü).

[16] It is supposed that until its destruction by the Persians in 494 BC, Didyma's sanctuary was administered by the family of the Branchidae, who claimed descent from an eponymous Branchos ,[17] a youth beloved of Apollo.

Clement of Alexandria quotes Leandrios saying that Cleochus, grandfather of the eponymous founder Miletus, was buried within the temple enclosure of Didyma.

The Persians carried away the bronze cult statue of Apollo to Ecbatana, traditionally attributed to Canachus of Sicyon[23] at the end in the 6th century BC.

[24] Although the sanctuaries of Delphi and Ephesus were swiftly rebuilt, Didyma remained a ruin until the time Alexander the Great conquered Miletus and freed it from the Persians in 334 BC.

In between a complete break had been rent in the oracles' personnel and tradition, the Branchidae priests marched off to Persian sovereign territory.

It contained in its own small cella the bronze cult image of Apollo, brought back by Seleucus I Nicator from Persia about 300 BC.

[36] His successor Hadrian visited Miletus and Didyma in 129 AD and acted as Prophet - the highest office in the sanctuary.

These included inquiries and responses,[38] and literary testimony records Didyma's role as an oracle, with the "grim epilogue"[39] of Apollo's supposed sanction of Diocletian's persecution of Christians, until the closing of the temples under Theodosius I.

[41] This name was used for the village above the temple ruin until the early 20th century (Jeronda) and today the Turks continue to call it Yoran.

[42] When Ciriaco de' Pizzicolli visited the spot in 1446, it seems that the temple was still standing in great part, although the cella had been converted into a fortress by the Byzantines, but when the next European visitor, the Englishmen Jeremy Salter and Dr Pickering, arrived in 1673, it had collapsed.

She began in 2001 the exploration of the disposal site (the so-called Taxiarchis hill) of the debris from the Persian looting in 494 BC.

[50] Afterwards, also under her auspices, were the discovery of the Greek theatre in 2010/11 and during 2013 the foundations of the temple of Artemis and of another Hellenistic building, residing under a Byzantine chapel.

In the western half of the sekos the remains of a small temple were found, the so-called Naiskos, which housed the cult statue of Apollo.

[53] In front of this late Archaic temple was a circular building erected to surround the altar for Apollo, which, according to Pausanias,[54] was made of blood and ashes of the sacrificed animals.

This circular building with the conical altar inside was used until the end of antiquity, whilst to the east and south of the temple stood a stoa for storing some of the famous donations of Apollo.

[55] The ramifications for the temple after the Ionians lost the naval battle off of the islands of Lade in 494 BC were that most of the buildings of Didyma were heavily damaged by the Persians.

[63] Between the two tunnel exits in the sekos a monumental staircase leads up to three openings into a room whose roof was supported by two columns on the central cross-axis.

Among these three doors were placed two Corinthian half columns, whose spectacular capitals originally survived but during the First World War they were unfortunately destroyed.

It had been clear that the drawing on the western sekos wall would also suit to the rediscovered fragments of architectural members from the temple of Artemis also.

This supposition is strengthened by the fact that the two most famous temples of Artemis in Asia Minor, at Ephesus and at Magnesia ad Maeandrum, were also faced to the west.

[75] In the end these results contradict Klaus Tuchelt's view that the sanctuary of Artemis was situated west of the sacred way, as Helga Bumke had some years ago already suggested.

[78] Parallel to the southern colonnade of the temple of Apollo was situated a stadium which dates from the Hellenistic period, though athletic agons were probably held there earlier.

As these inscriptions are also found on the southern part of the western colonnade it seems likely that the stadium was longer than the south side of the temple of Apollo.

Evidence that the theatre arose in the second half of the 1st century AD is indicated by the find of a coin dating from the time of the Roman emperor Nero and a lot of sherds from the same period.

The inscribed dedications on the architraves reveals that the stage building was consecrated to the gods Apollo, Artemis, Leto, Zeus, the emperor Hadrian and the people of Miletus.

An inscription from the beginning 3rd century BC reports that Antiochos I received a seat of honour during the choir contests at Didyma.

[86] Another early Christian church was constructed 100 meters north of the temple of Apollo, at approximately the same location where today the mosque stands.

This church also employed the use of ancient blocks salvaged from the temple of Artemis nearby and the previously mentioned Doric stoa above.

Its later history is not yet clear, but in 1830 their remains were used to erect a new church (dedicated to Saint Charalambos) for the recently arrived Greek settlers.