Gift from the past
Barry Nicholson: I couldn’t agree more with Glenn Maffia’s article ‘Reconstruct to Oblivion’ (Voices, Feb 22)
and I agree there is an appalling mess of crumbling houses surrounding the Temple of Apollo.

To think of the treasures that lie beneath the area is amazing and the German archaeologists,
to my knowledge, have been doing a fine job.

There is one point I slightly disagree with though, and that is the restaurants and shops surrounding the eastern and northern edges of the site such as the carpet shops, onyx shops, and restaurants including Harabe Café-Bar, Posseidon and others.

The effort the owners have made to restore the houses and make them into comfortable restaurants, tearooms, bars and shops is outstanding. Sure, demolish the crumbling ‘heaps’, but please leave these honest businesses alone.

Getting back to Glenn’s article, it is so true that Didim offers the usual tourist bundle of beaches, nightlife, boat trips, jeep safaris and the like.

But what makes it unique? Granted, the Temple of Apollo and the Sacred Road. Also: Bafa Lake and its hiking and boating opportunities; one of the largest Tescos in south-west Turkey for shopping lovers; schools that are improving year-by-year; direct daily connections with Didim Seyahat to Ankara; and above all, the people of Didim (give or take a few scoundrels) make this place of ours unique. They are good, honest people, whatever you may hear or think. And then ‘those that be’? That’s another matter. Let’s just enjoy as many of the ‘gifts from the past’ as we can.