37:20.5N 27.15.9E

Around the world with the Aqualunies
Jonathan & Gabrielle Lyne
Thu 13 Aug 2015 10:11
10th - 13th August
DIDIM MARINA

We arrived here on the afternoon of the 10th after a lovely sail.  We anchored in the bay off the beach which was good holding but a bit noisy with trip boats, speed boats towing rings and jet skies.
We took the dingy into the marina and asked if we could have help the following morning with getting Aqualuna into a pontoon if the wind was calm.  They were very helpful and we were in aft to a pontoon with no problem at all the following morning.
We spent the day really cleaning the yacht.  The amount of fine black dust covering everything was unbelievable, the pollution levels appear quite high at the moment.  Below decks I did a complete spring clean and laundry, defrosted the fridge and sorted food.
We organised a car to take us to the very ancient PORT OF MILETUS 
We spent hours exploring Miletus.  The city was very important and now has the largest theatre in Asia Minor.  The River Meander was deep and provided a good harbour, now it is a swamp and at the moment very dry.  The word ‘Meander’ comes from this river.  Miletes was the birth place of science and philosophy Thalus lived here in the late 7thC BC.  and attempted to determine the material basis of the world he was also credited with determining the solar eclipse within a year of 585BC. He studied the Nile floods and devised a method to measure the height of the Pyramids.  Sadly, as he was mulling over a problem in a very professor kind of way whilst he was walking along he fell down a well. The city was destroyed by the Persians in 494BC.
As well as the theatre which is huge you can see the ruins of an old Byzantine castle built above it, the ruins of the old harbour of Miletus with its gods guarding the entrance.  The ruins of an old Byzantine church amongst the undergrowth and of the very large hot baths.  I took many photos which will be downloaded on to the next blog.
We drove on to the Ancient temple of Apollo on the outskirts of Didimar.
This temple, if it had ever been finished, would have been among the 7th wonders of the world, the two pillars standing are huge and very tall.  Sadly it was never finished as it was destroyed a few times over by earthquakes and the Persians in 494BC.  Work non the less continued for 200 years but it was never finished.  It was and is still spectacular it is the largest Ionic temple in the world.
Didyma is a religious sanctuary to Apollo famed for it’s Oracle.  The Oracles were issued by priests as early as 600BC The priests who issued these oracles and sayins were in a trance, it is now thought that the water they drank from the ‘holy well’ had so much sulphur in it that it made them talk nonsense. They also used to find out who was coming to visit the temple for blessing before a long journey and so had help in predicting their fate.  On one side of some of the marble pillar basis you can see where ancient people carved game boards (naughts and crosses etc) to play whilst waiting to enter the temple.  Photos in next blog.