How much ancient people paid to build such a great monumets?

 Hello everyone;

''How much ancient people paid to build such a great monumets?'' I am sure that so far you already ask yourself or your guide when touring in ancient city '' How ancient people could lift such a big stones?''After you google or ask your guide you got it.! Lift system ! Ancient cranes,pullies,slaves,animals...Well... This is totally different topic I can write soon.But today my question is how much they paid? and Who paid? 

I will explain this topic on one of the ancient temple in Turkey ; Temple of Apollo at Didyma/Didim.

Let me give some information about the temple first;

The earliest inscription at the site is date back to 600 Bc.Branchidae family was oracle priests of the temple.Branchus was the most handsome of men in Miletus city.One day when herding his animals he came accross Apollo in woods,being enchanted with the beauty of the god,kissed him.Apollo embraced him but returned to his affections.Apollo gave him a magical staff and a crown and breathed the gift of prophecy into him.From that moment Branchus became priest of oracle centre at Didyma(means twins,the place where Apollo and Artemis were born,twins).

We know that ancient people began building Temple of Apollo in 6c BC.But the temple was destroyed by Persian king Darius (according to Heredotus) in 494 BC or Xerxes in 479 BC (according to Strabo).After destroying the temple , Persians kidnapped Branchidae family to Persia.So the site lay abondened for 150 years , until Alexander the Great's arrival.It is a story that when Alexander the Great came , sacred spring gushed again.So it was announcing that Alexander was true son of Zeus.He listened what happened there from locals.After invading Persia , Alexander didn't forget the story he listened at Didyma and found Branchidae family members.He asked his generals what to do,and he decided kill them all.Because when Persians came into temple,they didn't resist and surrender to Persians, so it was a big betrayal to Apollo.

Around 300 BC,Alexander successor Seleucus began to build structure which exist today.They started to build 4th largest temple of Greek world measuring 168 x 358 ft / 51 x 109 m. They were planing to complete 120 columns,each of height 64,67 ft / 19.71 m and the diameter 6,63 / 2,02 m. Although they did their best for completing the temple for about 600 years,they failed.The temple of Apollo never completed.

Because it was too costy! Here is the question ; How much ancient people paid to build such a great monumets? Here is answer ; According to an inscription about annual financial statement dating to 223-222 BC , Leukurgoi (group of stone masons,whose duty was to decorete stones and put them into place) was paid 20.000 drahmi for fixing a gate measures 1,43 m / 4,69 ft , weight to 47.6 tons. And also we know that annual budget of the temple was 40.000 drahmi.That means that only for putting a gate,they spent half of their annual budget.For the columns , each of height 64,67 ft / 19.71 m and the diameter 6,63 / 2,02 m , they also spent 40.000 drahmi. Thats also annual budget of the temple !! So .. They were planing to complete 120 columns,every year they could erect only 1 column ! 120 years ! According to archealogist Gruben , the cost of erecting a column,like at Apollo temple,is 2 million Euro with todays money !!

Who paid such a big amounts? I can hear you say : kings,donaters,rich people.. These are all correct answers.But also king/government was renting state's buildings and the revenue was for the temple.Also,sometimes they were selling skins of sacrificied animals.

To see location of the Didim and pictures please visit  https://www.turkeytravelsites.com/sayfalar/miletus 

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