Euromos, Aegean Turkey
The Temple of Zeus at Euromos is to me the perfect ruined Greek temple. Set in a forest of olive trees just east of the D525 highway between Selcuk (Ephesus) and Bodrum (25 km/16 miles SE of Lake Bafa, 13 km/8 miles NW of Milas), just south of the village of Selimiye (map), the Corinthian temple almost looks like a Hollywood set, except it's for real. A shrine may have existed here from the 6th century BCE. Believed to date from the time of Emperor Hadrian (117-138 CE), the Temple of Zeus Lepsynus and its precinct were excavated by Turkish archeologists starting in 1969. Look carefully and you'll see that some of the columns are unfluted, meaning perhaps that the temple was never finished. Located about a mile south of the village of Selimiye, the temple area has no services, although there may be a villager selling cold drinks. Stop for a half-hour's look if you're driving south from ?zmir or Ephesus headed for Milas, Bodrum or Marmaris. This is actually a much larger archeological site than just the temple. The hillside to the east is littered with ruins, and if you spend an hour hiking around you can find a theater, an agora and massive defensive walls.
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Photo credit: © Zoonar/EMIRALI KOKAL / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: aegean, anatolia, ancient, antiquities, apollo, archaeology, built, civilization, culture, day, destinations, didyma, euromos, greek, history, horizontal, image, marble, milas, outdoors, ruined, structure, symbol, temple, tourism, traditional, travel, turkey
