Didyma - Turkey

Didyma was an ancient Ionian shrine which is today known as Didim in Turkey.Didyma, Apollo Temple is an important sacred site in the ancient Greek world.
It was the most renowned oracle of the Hellenic world containing a temple and an oracle of Apollo. Mythic genealogies of the Branchidae line of priests, designed to capture the origins of Didyma as a Hellenistic tradition, date to the Hellenistic period
Along with several myths, it was thought that the name Dydimaion which meant ”temple of the twins” or “twin temples” was related to Artemis that is the twin sister of Apollo.
However this theory remained as a myth, as there is no definite evidence could be found. Besides, it was proved that this thesis was right, during the excavations in the recent years with the intensification of work on the “Sacred Road” connecting Miletus and Didyma and finding the location of the Artemis cult. The twin temples built for the twin brother and sister, the Artemision and the Didymaion, constitute the origin of the name Didyma.
The mother goddess Cybele was closely related to Apollo and Artemis. From prehistoric times Cybele had a very important place in Anatolia. According to the cultures and localities, Cybele had various names and epithets. The most widespread one of these was Dindymus and which was derived from month Dindymus and which is remarkable for its name to the Dydima.