 |
|
Temple of Concordia
|
Located
on a plateau overlooking Sicily's southern coast, Agrigento was founded as
Akragas around 582 BC (BCE) by a group of colonists from Gela, who themselves
were the immediate descendants of Greeks from Rhodes and Crete. The area was inhabited much earlier; a female
skull found near Cannatello, a little SE of Agrigento, is half a million years
old. A Mesolithic village at Point
Bianca, farther down the coast dates from 6000 BC. The Sicanians may have descended from that
civilization. Akragas, named for the
nearby river, flourished under Phalaris (570-554 BC), and developed further
under Theron (488-471 BC), whose troops participated in the Battle of Himera in
480 BC, defeating the Carthaginians. Agrigento
was destroyed several times during the Punic Wars, suffering particularly
extensive damage during a siege by Roman forces in 261 BC, but always
rebuilt. The Greek poet Pindar (518-438
BC) described Akragas as "the most beautiful city of the mortals." Ancient Akragas became one of the leading
cities in the Mediterranean world. The
remains its magnificent Doric temples that dominate the ancient town much of
which still lies intact under today's fields demonstrate its supremacy.
 |
|
Temple of
Juno
|
 |
|
Almonds and olives grow around the temples
|
Akragas
covers a huge area, much of which is still unexcavated today. The famous Valle dei Templi ("Valley of
the Temples", a misnomer, as it is a ridge, rather than a valley) encompasses
the south side of the ancient city where seven monumental Greek temples in the
Doric style were constructed during the 6th and 5th centuries BC. Now excavated and partially restored, they
constitute some of the largest and best-preserved ancient Greek buildings
outside of Greece itself. In the Valley
of the Temples are the ruins of numerous temples, also necropoli, houses, streets
and everything else one would expect to find in an ancient city. There is a small amphitheater, as well as
several auditoria, and a fine archeological museum.
 |
|
A model of the Temple of Olympian Zeus
|
 |
|
An atlas of the temple of Zeus
|
Unfortunately, most of the temples at
Agrigento are in ruins, with pieces strewn about, and several appear to have
never even been completed. Despite its
location, virtually in the shadow of a modern city, olive groves and almond
orchards surround the Valley of the Temples and give it a natural ambience. Its importance declined under the Byzantines
and Saracens, who encouraged settlement of the medieval city (present-day
Agrigento) several kilometers from the Valley of the Temples. Akragas was renamed Agrigentum by the Romans,
and Girgenti by the Arabs, only to be christened Agrigento in 1927, but the
place is the same.
 |
|
Temple of Heracles
|
 |
|
Looking out to the sea from the valley of the temples
|