William Page

Inscribed with title u.c.: TEMPLE OF APOLLO DIDYMAEUS. HIERONDAS

Pen and brown ink over traces of graphite, on two sheets, joined

43 x 114 cm

The Temple of Apollo at Didyma (now Didim in Turkey), on the coast of Ionia, housed the most renowned oracle in the ancient world after Delphi and was the largest and most significant sanctuary on the territory of the city of Miletus. Destroyed by the Persians in 494 BC, the oracle was re-consecrated by Alexander the Great around 334 BC. A new peripteral temple, surrounded by a double file of Ionic columns, was started, although never finished.

The village of Hieronda, also known as Ura, was built on the site and was referred to and stayed at by Richard Chandler, who led an expedition for the Society of the Dilettanti in1764–6. Extensive excavations on the site, led initially by the British and French and now by the Germans, have revealed most of the temple and much of the sacred way.

The two standing columns in Page’s drawing, which was made with the aid of a camera obscura, can still be seen at the site today.