Glenn Maffia continues his archaeological travel through the Apollo Temple site I RECALL the moment with absolute clarity. I was sitting in a friend’s restaurant adjacent to the Temple when one of the archaeologists we knew came walking along the road (still dodging the heavy traffic in those days) with the broadest smile etched upon…
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Glenn Maffia writes about Didim’s Byzantine Chapel and Hellenistic foundations THIS site is located just behind the Medusa Butik Otel on the south east side of the Temple. Its discovery, in 2015, was the result of an inspired piece of archaeological detective work by the Director of Excavations of the German team. Threat to the…
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Glenn Maffia AS in all ancient Greek and Roman places of dense population an area for physical sporting prowess was a prominent feature. And Didyma was an area containing a throng of humanity during the time of the festival in honour of Apollo. Where dreams are made: The site of the Stadium was, and remains,…
Read MoreLAST Sunday saw the annual Sacred Way walk from Akkoy to Apollo Temple. Voices columnist Glenn Maffia takes you for a ramble down its historical byways ARCHAEOLOGY, since Charles Newton (1857/8) until this day, has continued to reveal important and fascinating evidence of the practices of religious observation duly performed in honouring the god Apollo…
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Glenn Maffia CLIMBING the stairs to the vastly impressive front façade of the Temple will bring one into the Pronaos, an area allowing the petitioners to await the answers to their questions received by the god of prophecy. It was here the priests of Apollo’s shrine pulled back the massive doors of the Cresmographeion to…
Read MoreGlenn Maffia: Though the God Apollo allegedly possessed many attributes, among them prophecy, he certainly had no supernatural control over that of climate. And so it came to pass that a number of people who were interested and enthusiastic about the talk And so it came to pass that a number of people who were…
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Glenn Maffia’s response to plans for a ‘Museum House’ near the Apollo Temple IT WAS while receiving a reply to a message I sent to a German archaeologist, prominent in the excavations around the Temple of Apollo for more than a decade, which clearly stated that, to the best of his knowledge, there has “never…
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Glenn Maffia: It made for fascinating reading that the crumbling building which houses some of the artefacts discovered by the German archaeological team over the last decade or so is intended to be transformed into Didim’s very own museum. Sounds wonderful on first hearing. But is it? Evidence of grandeur It is a grotesquely foolhardy…
Read More Glenn Maffia ONE of the initial agendas to fulfil whence arriving in old London Town for another festive holiday was to attend the appointment I had arranged with Dr Ian Jenkins, the man who oversees the collection of artefacts from the Apollo Temple, on display at the British Museum. It was a clear but icily…
Read MoreGlenn Maffia: Well, the news issued this week came straight out of the blue! An exchange program for the owners of those derelict builds around the Temple of Apollo, and the stated aim of demolition for those deemed illegal. The map in their hands I would certainly like to claim some credit, though I would be delusional…
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