A BID is underway to put Didim’s main heritage tourist attractions, the Apollo Temple and the Miletus ruins, on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
The town’s Chamber of Commerce has sent letters to Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry and the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums calling for them to apply for UNESCO status for the ruins.
The Chamber argued that the sites reflect the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Menteşe periods.
It has also called for the Ilyas Bey Mosque, located at Miletus, to also be listed. The mosque was built in 1403 by Ilyas Bey (1402–1421), ruler of the Turkish Mentese emirate.
The mosque is part of a complex consisting of a madrasah, a religious educational institute, and a hammam, a bath building. The prayer hall is covered by a dome 14 m (46 ft) in diameter, which is made of brick and covered with tiles, sits on an octagonal base that rests on the four walls. The brick minaret collapsed in the 1955 earthquake.
The complex is situated within the Miletus archaeological site. Next to the complex.
Ilyas Bey Complex was awarded in 2012 for its conservation with the European Prize for Cultural Heritage/Europa Nostra Award.
The bid comes in the wake of UNESCO recently listing Ephesus on its World Heritage List.