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Classical period
The Hippodamian city
After the destruction of 494 BC Miletus possibly continued to be sparsely inhabited. The city was refounded in 479 BC. Hippodamus of Miletus is considered to have worked out the plan of the classical city, which included streets crossing vertically and defining building blocks of equal size.  Each building block included six buildings. Because none of the building blocks of the city has been excavated, it is not known whether the tradition indicating the rectangular city plan attributed to Hippodamus is reliable. The origins of this discovery concerning the city plan must have existed before 479 BC, in the town-planning of Milesian colonies.
In Classical years the centre of the city was in its northern part. Most public buildings were there: the sanctuary of Apollo (Delphinium), the Prytaneion and the North Agora. Moreover, the temple of Athena was rebuilt just after 479 BC. It is immediately behind the so-called West Agora, to the south. The classical temple stood on an artificial flat level. It was an Ionic distyle in antis temple with 6 columns on the narrow and 10 columns on the long sides. It had a very unusual orientation from south to north and measured 18 × 35 m.
One of the most important complexes of Miletus is the North Agora dating from the 5th century BC, which was the oldest civil, commercial and religious centre of the city. The remains were traced to the south of the stoa of the Harbour of Lions. To the east, the North Agora was blocked by a wall, which had a propylon in the centre, while on the west side there was a peristyle area surrounded with shops. The Prytaneion was in the southwestern part of the North Agora. It was a particularly important public building in ancient Greek cities, where the prytaneis convened and official visitors and honours of guest were accommodated.
The archaic wall, destroyed in 494 BC, must have been rebuilt after 412 BC, as indicated by the resistance successfully mounted by the Milesians against the Athenians and the Argives. The Sacred Gate in the southern part of the wall was particularly important. The start of the Sacred Way linking Miletus with the sanctuary of Apollo in Didyma was there. In Classical years the Sacred Gate was 5 m wide and was surrounded by two almost square towers.
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