Priene - Milet - Didyma

Didyma is an ancient Ionian sanctuary containing a temple and oracle of Apollon, the Didymaion. In Greek didyma means twin. Next to Delphi, Didyma was the most renowned oracle of the Hellenic world. Didyma was the largest and most significant sanctuary in the territory of the great classical city Miletus. To approach it, visitors would follow the Sacred Way to Didyma, about 17km long. Along the way, were ritual stations, and statues of members of the Branchidae family, male and female, as well as animal figures.

Miletus was an ancient city on the western coast of Anatolia (in what is now Aydin Province, Turkey), near the mouth of the Meander River in ancient Caria. Evidence of first settlement at the site has been made inaccessible by the rise of sea level and deposition of sediments from the Maeander. In the early and middle Bronze Age the settlement came under Minoan influence. Legend has it that an influx of Cretans occurred displacing the indigenous Leleges. The site was renamed Miletus after a place in Crete.

Priene was an ancient Greek city of Ionia (and member of the Ionian League) at the base of an escarpment of Mycale, about 6km north of the then course of the Maeander (now called the Buyuk Menderes or "Big Maeander") River and 25km from Miletus. It was formerly on the sea coast, built overlooking the ocean on steep slopes and terraces extending from sea level to a height of 380 m (1247 ft) above sea level at the top of the escarpment.