Tourists are attracted to the modern Turkish city of Didim by the golden sands of the amazing purest beach Altinkum, marked with the Blue Flag, the abundance of luxurious restaurants, and the absence of crowds, that are so typical of the Antalya coast. History and culture lovers will enjoy their stay as well since there are the remains of the ancient city of Didim with a majestic stone temple built in honor of the god Apollo. It is the largest preserved monument of ancient architecture in Turkey.

The history of the city of Didim started in the first millennium BC. There, according to local legend, the beautiful Leto gave birth to Apollo, the son of Zeus, in whose honor a majestic temple with a sacred oracle was built by the locals. The fame of the oracle from Didim spread beyond its borders so quickly, that soon such legendary rulers as the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Necho II and King Croesus, the last ruler of Lydia, sent gifts to this sacred temple. A huge number of valuable gifts were discovered during archaeological excavations, and now they can be seen in museums all over the world: in the British Museum, in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, and in the Louvre in Paris.

The construction of a gigantic sanctuary continued for six centuries and has remained unfinished to this day. Now there are more than two hundred exterior columns and about one hundred and eighty interior ones, which are up to twenty meters high. They are located on a seven-step pedestal, where a spacious stone stair of fourteen wide steps leads. Inside the temple, there is an inner yard, where a sacred freshwater source was hidden in ancient times. At the very entrance, you can see gigantic stone friezes depicting mythical lions and huge heads of the merciless Gorgon Medusa, perfectly preserved to this day.