Restoration of the Temple of Apollo in Side, Turkey

At last, the Turkish authorities have decided to work on the preservation of ancient Side! When I was there a few years ago (see: Side didn’t put up any resistance to Alexander) I found the antiquities rather neglected and in dear need to be freshened up to say the least.

Anatolia University is starting with the famous Temple of Apollo, the icon-image on every travel folder in the area. It is evident that the temple’s columns and decorations have suffered badly from the sea moisture and salty water. Their plan is to prevent (further?) corrosion of the columns. How exactly they are going to do this, I’m not told, but it has been 35 years since the last archaeologist worked here.

Beside this Temple of Apollo, they launched a landscaping project around other buildings like the Temple of Tyche, the Temple of Dionysus, the Temple of Athena (which remains I hardly could locate!), and a basilica (I wonder which one). From what I read in Today’s Zaman, they mainly aim to stopping the corrosion.