By Ali Halit Diker, CNN
(CNN) — Muğla in southwestern Turkey delivers exactly what travelers expect from this corner of the Mediterranean: sunlit coastlines, rugged mountains and the ruins of long-fallen empires.
Yet beyond these well-trodden attractions, it hides something far less familiar — a place that attracts a secretive, devoted stream of visitors for reasons that have little to do with rest and relaxation.
About an hour’s drive north of the pretty coastal town of Akyaka sits Lagina, a site that’s home to the largest known temple dedicated to Hekate, a powerful Greek goddess associated with witchcraft, the moon, crossroads and communication with the dead.
While worship of most other ancient Greek or Roman deities has been confined to history, Hekate, or Hecate, remains a subject of reverence, attracting a global following of devotees, some of whom travel to the sanctuary dedicated to her to leave offerings.
Today, the sanctuary and temple make for a fascinating visit. It’s a large complex, scattered with columns and enough structural remains to show the shape of what was once seen as the threshold of an otherworldly realm.
For modern followers, Lagina is more than another archaeological site; it’s the spiritual center of their world.
“It is the only temple of this scale in the world built exclusively for the goddess Hekate,” says Bilal Söğüt, a professor at Turkey’s Pamukkale University, who leads excavations at both the sanctuary and the nearby ancient town of Stratonikeia.
The two sites were once connected by the Sacred Way, a stone-paved road stretching just over eight kilometers, or five miles. Lined with fountains, wells and small settlements, this route once carried elaborate religious processions between city and sanctuary.
“During ancient times, massive processions traveled this route,” says Söğüt.
A threshold of life and death
The most significant was a key-carrying ritual, in which a young girl, known as the kleidouchos, or key-bearer, would carry a sacred key between Lagina and Stratonikeia, accompanied by a large choir.
“This key does not open physical doors alone,” explains researcher and author Hüma Zeybek, who has written about Hekate. “It symbolizes the ability to move between life and death, the conscious and the unconscious, and the old and the new.”
Zeybek explains that Hekate was seen as a “guardian of the threshold,” an inner guide to those navigating personal crisis or transformation. She is seen as the archetype of the old, wise crone — representing matrilineal wisdom stretching back 8,000 years to the mother goddess figures found in the Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük, in central Turkey.
Lagina grew in importance after around 88 BCE, at the time of a conflict between Rome and Mithridates, who ruled the kingdom of Pontus, covering what is now modern-day Turkey. While the rest of the region sided with Mithridates, Stratonikeia supported the eventually victorious Romans.
Later, the Romans rewarded the city by investing heavily in the Temple of Hekate, establishing the Hekatesia-Romania festival, an annual event that drew people from all over the ancient world.
Lagina continues to be a place of pilgrimage. Modern devotees, such as author Sorita d’Este, who describes herself as a priestess and magic practitioner, visit the site to experience what they say is a place of profound energy.
For many, the journey there itself feels symbolic as it involves navigating a modern three-way junction near an industrial power plant with three towering smokestacks, an echo of Hekate’s role as goddess of the crossroads.
A dark transformation
While many come just t