DİDİM, DİDYMA;

186 km away from Marmaris, Didim is a small town, popular seaside holiday resort, and district of Aydın Province on the Aegean coast of westernTurkey, 123 km (76 mi) from the provincial capital city of Aydın. Didim is the site of the antique city of Didyma with its ruined Temple of Apollo.

The area was settled in the neolithic period, established as colony of Crete and then Mycenae in the 16th century BC and subsequently possessed by Lycians, Persians, Seleucids, Attalids, Ancient Romans, and Byzantines as part of the province of Caria. The area came into the hands of Turks following the defeat of Byzantium at the Battle of Malazgirt in 1086. The town was captured again by the Byzantines in 1098, by Menteşe in 1280, and then Aydinids in 1300. Didim was brought into the Ottoman Empire by sultan Mehmed I in 1413. At Ottoman Empire Didim's name Was "Yoran"

The ruins of the Ionic Temple of Apollo with its columns pointing up into the sky and its legend of the romance between Apollo and Daphne is nearby. The original temple and home of an oracle was destroyed during the Persian Wars and the one seen today was rebuilt following Alexander the Great's victory over the Persians.