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The Archaic Period
Housing
In the Archaic period Miletus extended from the hill Kalabaktepe, the acropolis of the settlement, as far as the Harbour of Lions. Although the city of the Geometric period covered the same area, the four-sided elliptical houses were concentrated around the sanctuary of Athena.  The Archaic city was larger covering about 1,100,000 sq.m. According to some probably high estimates, there were about 4,000 houses, thus indicating that the overall population of the in-walled city must have amounted to 20,000. The estimates of the overall population of free Milesians give numbers between 50,000 and 100,000, which implies that the great majority lived outside the residential area, in settlements and country houses. A fortification wall of the second half of the 7th century BC, strengthened by defensive towers, protected the city: it possibly extended as far as the southern part of the peninsula including a double fortification wall around the acropolis Kalabaktepe. The overall area of the walled part was about 110 hectares, although it is not certain whether it was fully covered with buildings.
The most important building of the period is the temple of Apollo (Delphinium) in the area of the harbour. Very few traces of the archaic sanctuary of Apollo have been preserved. It is only known that it was preserved throughout the 5th century BC after the Persian destruction. It looked like an open-air temenos with an altar at the centre. Other important monuments of the Archaic period are the temple of Athena in the centre of the peninsula, the temple of Dionysus and the temple at Kalabaktepe, which is attributed to Artemis. Unfortunately, archaeological research has produced dismal results concerning the architecture of these Ionic and marble monuments. The three suburban sanctuaries of the Archaic period dedicated to Athena of Assesos in Assessos, Aphrodite in the hill Zeyintepe and Apollo in Didyma were of equal, if not greater, importance. In the early 6th century BC a monumental marble altar dedicated to Poseidon was built to the south of the peninsula of Miletus. An imposing marble stairway connected the two parts of the monument, which stood on different levels and was decorated with a cyma and volutes.
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