THE road that runs through the centre of Eskikoy, which is home to the Temple of Appolo, will be closed to traffic for a month due ongoing archaeological digs.

Conducted by the German Archaeological Institute, the Miletus Museum Directorate has agreed for the throughroad to be closed to allow excavations to continue safely.

Didim Governor Ersin Emiroglu said the archaeologists wanted to drill part of the road.

Last August, researchers directed their efforts in three locations including a dilapidated small Christian chapel to the south of the Temple, in which a floor of Hellenistic or Roman origin was unearthed and the excavation under the present road upon the line followed by the Sacred Road

This year’s excavation, the latest in a long 107-year study by German archaeologists, have concentrated at the bottom end of the Apollo Temple as well as around the Hisar Mosque, the former Christian chapel.

Directorate of Miletus Museum, with responsibility for Didim, Nuri Aktakka, said work had begun on August 4, and would be extended to Priene as well.

In one of the first results of the digs, a skeleton was found during excavations of the Hisar Mosque garden. The mosque was originally a church before it was converted to a mosque.