Miletus

Heroon. A building constructed in the Hellenistic period. It had an inner courtyard containing a circular tomb, with rooms on the east and west sides.

The Temple of Apollo Delphinios, or Delphinion, was the most important temple in the urban religious centre of Miletus. The epithet (Delphinios) came from the fact that dolphins were considered intelligent animals and lovers of music, and for these characteristics were, in Hellenic religion, consecrated to Apollo. This deity was associated with the protection of seafarers and their ships. The temple lay east of the stoa.
The original temenos was built in the Archaic period, but the remains visible today are Hellenistic, of a building surrounded on 3 sides by Doric stoas and modified in the Roman period. The Hellenistic temenos measured 50 x 60 metres and could be entered through 3 gates on the west side. In the courtyard an altar, a round structure and the remains of the foundations of 3 exedrae were found, as well as 4 round portable altars dated to the 6th century BC.

House from the time of the emirates.

Water management. Fountains, ceramic pipes and pits.

Group of images highlighting the north and south agoras. The north agora was built in the Classical period and later enlarged during the Hellenistic period and again in the Roman period. The south agora was built in the Hellenistic period as a market. It was a huge courtyard measuring 164 x 196 m, entirely surrounded by columns. There were Doric stoas on 3 sides of the agora, housing the shops and storerooms.

Plans of the ásty. The Bay of Lions was a place specially equipped for protecting and keeping ships, and it would therefore seem likely that this was the place chosen for the beginning of the settlement, although no evidence dating from that period has been found. However, this part of the city went through a period of intense development from the 5th century BC. Many of the buildings in use during the Hellenistic period were built during the Classical period, for example the stoa, the small market, the prytaneion in the north agora and the western half of the Delphinion. The Bay of Lions was the city's best means of strategic defence in antiquity. Its entrance was extremely narrow and could be closed with a chain, forming a naval base. The stone lions stood on either side of the entrance as a kind of symbolic guard. These figures, carved in the Hellenistic period, still stand in their original place today.

The theatre of Miletus was one of the most important and beautiful buildings of the city. Its front is 140 m long, and in the Roman period its height reached 40 metres, so that the theatre must have been a very impressive sight for those arriving by sea, since it stood near the coast. The original construction dates from the 4th century BC, and extensions were built during the Hellenistic period, but its present size dates from the Roman period. There was seating for more than 15,000 spectators.

Plans of the urban centre highlighting the public and sacred buildings of the polis and its orthogonal grid. Many of the important public buildings, such as the harbour stoa, the small market, the prytaneion and the temple of Athena, were built during the Classical period, especially the 5th and 4th centuries BC, and all followed the same south-west orientation established by the buildings in the Bay of Lions district built in the Archaic period.

Bouleuterion. This building consisted of a propylon, a courtyard surrounded by Corinthian columns and an auditorium. The frieze of the propylon was made up of reliefs depicting implements of war and was a smaller replica of the reliefs of the temenos of Athena at Pergamon. The propylon had 3 separate entrances, and Doric stoai extended along 3 sides of the courtyard. There were two further doors leading to the auditorium on the west side, giving access to the upper rows by means of two staircases. The roof, built of wood, was supported by the walls and by 4 Ionic columns. The total capacity of the auditorium was 1,500 people. The ruins visible in the centre of the courtyard belonged to the Roman-era heroon. It can be seen that the bouleuterion was fully aligned with the orthogonal plan.

The Hellenistic gymnasium consisted of a propylon and a palaestra with 5 rooms for study. The main lines of the base of the building are still visible, but it is difficult to decipher the original plan precisely. Nevertheless, similarities can be seen with the plan of the lower gymnasium at Priene. In both cases the ephebeion was in the middle and its entrance was marked by two Ionic columns.

Architectural details of the pipes, defensive structures, theatre, temple of Apollo, bouleuterion and the house from the time of the emirates.

Reconstructions of various structures such as walls, the temple of Apollo, the north agora and the Didymaion.

Group of images highlighting the size and position of the south agora (also called the south market) in the polis. This market was built in the Hellenistic period as a huge courtyard of 164 by 196 m, surrounded by columns. Although this area has been only partially excavated, its plan has been revealed in detail. It has become clear that the agora was surrounded by stoas on all sides from the Hellenistic period. Although the colonnades were built in 3 separate blocks, they belong to the same building project and are all Doric. The east stoa consisted of 39 pairs of shops placed back to back, so that half the shops could be entered from the east and the other half from the west, that is, from the courtyard of the agora. The latter shops opening onto the agora also had storage space at the back. Nineteen shops lay on the south side of the south-west stoa, some opening inwards and others outwards, in no particular order. The 3 stoas of the south agora also followed the orthogonal plan, as did the bouleuterion and the gymnasium, and they were all built at the same time, around the middle of the 2nd century BC.

Walls and gates, their dimensions and position in relation to the roads. Stretches of Hellenistic and Archaic walls lie behind the façade of the theatre, and an Archaic tower can easily be identified below, near the east exit of the façade, aligned with the proskenion.
Between the temple of Apollo Delphinios and the harbour stoa was the access to the harbour, lined with 16 columns, built in the early Roman period.