Didyma

The citizens of ancient Didyma bit off more than they could chew: starting around 300 BC, they spent about 500 years constructing the massive temple of Apollo, and never managed to finish it. That’s not surprising when you look at the enormous columns and note that the design required 120 of them.

Classical motifs abound on the column bases; many of them are copied two thousand years later in Western European architecture. They pop up all over the place in Georgian New Town houses in Edinburgh.

As the site is surrounded by houses and there is no view across to the sea, and as the site is a little below the modern level of the surrounding land, it doesn’t quite make the overwhelming impression on the visitor that its sheer mass deserves.