Valley of the Temples

Akragas was one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia, the Greek colonies of southern Italy and Sicily. Its temples line a ridge outside the modern town, inside an archaeological park of some 1,300 hectares that has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. The best preserved is the Temple of Concordia from the fifth century BC, a peristyle of six by thirteen columns that survived largely because it was converted into a Christian church in the sixth century AD, when arched openings were cut into its walls.

A walk through the park leads past the Temple of Hera, burned by the Carthaginians in 406 BC, the Temple of Heracles, the oldest, of which eight columns still stand, and the vast ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, begun around 480 BC and once supported by giant figures known as atlantes. The four columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux have become a symbol of Agrigento. Along the way are the Tomb of Theron, city gates, necropolises and the Sanctuary of the Chthonic Deities, and the Kolymbethra Garden lies nearby.