Altinkum is a small and friendly resort. You will get to know the local people very quickly because they will enjoy talking with you and offering a cup of Turkish tea or apple tea. Does not matter if this is your first or last trip, you will find yourself coming back to Altinkum year after year to visit your new friends.

Didim is shaped as a peninsula surrounding Mugla on the east coast with huge inlet of Akbuk town, Aegean sea on the west and east coast, Lake Bafa and the Menderes River on the northern coast. 106 km's to City of Aydin, 53 km' to town of Söke, 73 km's to Kusadasi, 110 km's to Bodrum. Spread to 300 km2. of area.

ALTINKUM means “golden sands” and with its beaches which gently shelve into the inviting turquoise blue Aegean, you will soon see how the resort got its name. Excellent Beach life in Altinkum has also got water sports or pedals for those who prefer the pace of life a bit slower. Sun beds and umbrellas are available for rent and once settled there will be no need for you to move until sunset.

Apollon Temple

In antiquity a Sacred Way connected Miletus to the port of Didyma and its famous temple. The last stretch of road was flanked by statues of sphinxes and reclining lions, now to be seen in the British Museum in London, This important street dating back at least to the 6th century B.C. confirms the hypothesis of the existence here of a small archaic temple, far earlier than the foundation of the colossal place of worship dedicated to Apollo. Traces of this original building have in fact been identified inside the large temple.

Evidence of the popularity of the sanctuary goes back to the archaic period, in particular from the 6th century B.C. on, when mention is made of gifts offered by the powerful and by kings, comparable to those offered to the famous oracle of Delphi. In line with what Pausanias affirms, it is highly likely that at Didyma, as in many other centers of Asia Minor, the Greeks replaced all forms of local cult with their own forms of worship. It seems to have been ascertained that the sacred place dedicated to Apollo existed before the first Ionic colonies settled here. Even the statue of Apollo capturing a stag found in the temple can be related to religious motifs of obvious Hittite and Anatolian extraction. Further evidence that a cult of Apollo existed prior to Greek colonization is to be found in Homer's Iliad.

The history of archaeology regarding this temple is relatively recent, and dates back only to the 1960s. Excavations undertaken by German archaeologists led first to the identification of the foundations of a perimetral wall of the sanctuary, thought to have been built in the 8th or 7th century B.C. The subsequent discovery of a colonnade dating to the end of the 7th century B.C. leads to the supposition that the original nucleus was at the time enlarged. The first temple was burned by the Persians at the beginning of the 5th century B.C., but when Alexander the Great conquered the Anatolian regions, a much larger and more scenographic place of worship was built on the same site. The Temple of Apollo Didyma is one of the largest of the Hellenistic classical period, preceded solely by the Artemision of Ephesus and the Temple of Hera in Samos. Still today an idea of the ancient splendor of the building with its impressive number of Ionic columns still transpires from these imposing magnificent ruins. Even though work on the temple complex continued from the 3rd century B.C. up to Roman times, it was never finished. The shrine itself was surrounded by a portico with two rows of columns. Some of these architectural Clements have withstood the ravages of time and the earthquakes and still stand in their solemn beauty, often complete with capitals and architraves. The shrine where prophecies were revealed in the name of Apollo was faced in marble brought from the Aegean islands. Of particular note among the numerous decorations found in the temple are various busts of divinities such as Apollo, Jupiter, Artemis and Latona, as well as capitals ornamented with heads of griffins and bulls, which, together with a head of Medusa that was part of a frieze on an architrave, are examples of 2nd century A.D. sculpture.

Not far from the temple, a Stadium surrounded by seven rows of seats has been identified. Apparently this installation was used for the sacred competitions, which accompanied the religious rites held in the temple. Some of the tiers of seats are incised with names that belong to the late Hellenistic period.