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Agrigento the city of the Gods, UNESCO World Heritage Site
On the southern coast of Sicily, overlooking the Mediterranean, stands Agrigento the city of the Gods, declared in 1997 World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
The visit of the archaeological area of Agrigento is a journey through time through a thousand-year history that preserves monumental evidence of the Greek colonial system, the Roman city and the medieval period.
The Archaeological Park of the Valle dei Templi of Agrigento (Valley of the Temples) with its 1300 hectares is among the largest archaeological sites in the Mediterranean area.
The area is surrounded by an agricultural landscape of extraordinary beauty made of olive trees, vineyards, almond trees and Mediterranean maquis. A happy harmony between nature and ruins.
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| The Valle dei Templi of Agrigento |
The name of "Valle dei Templi" refers to what in ancient times was the extensive area occupied by the city of Akragas (Agrigento): a city that occupied an area of about 450 hectares with the acropolis, at the Rupe Atenea, the Hill of the Temples with the monumental sanctuaries, the residential districts and the public buildings in the central area.
The large necropolis was located outside the city, beyond a 12-kilometre-long city wall with 9 gates.
The history of ancient Akragas begins in 580 B.C. with the founding of the city by Greek colonists from nearby Gela and Rhodes, and soon became one of the major cities of the Mediterranean world.
Its importance is demonstrated by the remains of the magnificent temples, masterpieces of the Doric style, which dominate the ancient city, many of which are still in perfect condition.
The construction of the most important temples dates back to the 5th century B.C. and represents one of the most significant testimonies of Greek civilization and architecture in the West.
A bit of curiosity: the denominations of the temples are conventional, not supported by archaeological or epigraphic evidence (for most of them therefore it is not possible to know to which divinity they were dedicated).
For their construction wasn’t used the marble but the local tufa stone that today gives the buildings a characteristic golden color; in the past, however, their appearance had to be very different because they are covered with stucco, still partly preserved, and bright colors.
Our archaeological walk is dedicated to visiting the Hill of Temples.
The site is divided into two areas that include, in the eastern sector, the Temple of Juno, the Temple of Concordia and the Temple of Heracles; in the western sector the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Temple of the Dioscuri and the Sanctuary of Chthonic Deities. To the north there are the Kolymbetra Garden and the Temple of Hephaestus - Vulcan.
The entrance to the archaeological park is dominated by the Temple of Juno. It can be seen in the distance standing on a basement of 4 steps at the highest point of the hill.
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| The Temple of Juno in the Valle dei Templi of Agrigento |
We walk along the Via Sacra, the road that crosses the Hill of Temples from east to west.
On the left side remains of the Greek walls and arcosolia tombs (for the presence of an arched niche) of the medieval period.
A short distance from the Temple of Concordia, one of the most perfect works of Greek architecture, datable to the second half of the V century B.C. The temple owes its name to a Latin inscription of the half of the I century A.D. found in the vicinity and erroneously put in relation to the building.
The transformation of the temple into a Christian church in the sixth century A.D. has determined its perfect conservation: on the base there are six columns on the short sides and thirteen on the long ones and on them the elements of the entablature and the two pediments.
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| The Temple of Concordia in the Valle dei Templi of Agrigento |
A curiosity: in the area in front of the Temple of Concordia is placed the bronze statue of ‘Fallen Icarus' Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj. The statue was part of the splendid contemporary art exhibition that took place in the Valley of the Temples in 2011.
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| Icarus in front of Temple of Concordia in the Valley of the Temples of Agrigento |
A vast early Christian necropolis with graves carved into the rock, develops in the area surrounding the Temple of Concordia until the entrance of the extensive Catacomb of Grotta Fragapane.
Among the most famous funerary monuments there is the Tomb of Theron, a tower funerary building of Roman age (I century B.C.) wrongly attributed to the tyrant of Akragas who lived at the beginning of the V century B.C.
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| Early Christian necropolis with rock-cut tombs in the Valley of the Temples of Agrigento |
Our itinerary continues with the Temple of Hercules, the oldest of the temples of Agrigento, built at the end of the sixth century B.C., still shows the characteristics of the archaic architecture with its elongated plan and the slender columns.
Originally it consisted of six columns on the short sides and fifteen on the long sides; only eight columns were raised in 1924.
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| The Temple of Heracles in the Valle dei Templi of Agrigento |
A modern road (the Strada Provinciale 4) divides the hill of the Temples into two incredibly.
After crossing a bridge we find ourselves in front of the remains of the colossal Temple of Olympian Zeus, the largest Doric temple of all the West (112 x 56 meters). Erected to celebrate the great victory over the Carthaginians at the Battle of Himera in 480 B.C., it was never completed.
The building presented original architectural solutions. The temple, placed on a gigantic rectangular basement of five steps, was enclosed by a fence wall.
Between the semi-columns (7 on the short sides and 14 on the long sides) were placed the gigantic statues of Telamoni (Atlases), about 8 meters high, represented in the act of holding the trabeation of the temple.
The building, destroyed in ancient times by earthquakes and plundered of its materials, today looks like an expanse of rubble.
At the center of the temple, the copy of one of the atlas while the original is kept in the Archaeological Museum of Agrigento.
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| Model that reconstructs the Temple of Olympian Zeus at the Archaeological Museum of Agrigento |
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| Remains of the Temple of Olympian Zeus on the Hill of the Temples in Agrigento |
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| Remains of one original Atlas in the hall of the Temple of Olympian Zeus at the Archaeological Museum of Agrigento |
In the western section of the hill near the Gate V (Porta V) a series of adjacent sacred areas dedicated to the underground cults of Demeter and Persephone takes the name of Sanctuary of Chthonic Deities.
Here lies the so-called Temple of the Dioscuri, dating back to the second half of the fifth century B.C., today one of the most representative symbols of the Valley of the Temples. It is actually a reconstruction of four columns and part of the entablature with architectural elements of various ages and origins made in the nineteenth century.
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| Sanctuary of Chthonic Deities in the Valle dei Templi of Agrigento |
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| The Temple of the Dioscuri in the Valle dei Templi of Agrigento |
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| The Temple of the Dioscuri and the modern city of Agrigento |
Our itinerary also includes a visit to the Regional Archaeological Museum of Agrigento ‘Pietro Griffo’.
In the 17 rooms that make up the museum is exposed one of the richest archaeological collections in Sicily.
The museum was built in the heart of the archaeological area reusing the spaces of the fourteenth-century monastery of the Church of San Nicola located next to Ekklesiasterion by IV-III century B.C. (meeting place of the citizens' assembly) and the so-called Oratory of Phalaris (I century B.C.), a small temple on podium transformed in the Middle Ages in church.
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Krater in white-ground technique (Phiale Painter) (440-430 B.C.) at the Archaeological Museum of Agrigento |
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| The Agrigento Ephebe (V century B.C.) at the Archaeological Museum of Agrigento |
The visit of the Valley of the Temples of Agrigento is an experience to do at least once in a lifetime! Contact us to organize the visit accompanied by our authorized tour guides.
At this link you can discover the complete list of guided tours we provide in Sicily and the detailed itinerary of our guided tours in Agrigento
Information and booking requests to info@bestguidedtours.com