Valley of the Temples

August 25, 2014

We flew to Palermo on the island of Sicily in preparation for Specialized Training the next day.  The missionaries in Agrigento had an investigator who needed a baptismal interview by President Waddoups so we drove all the way to Agrigento to meet with the missionaries and do the interview.  Afterwards we met with the Branch President and his wife and went for gelato.  The Greek ruins called Valley of the Temples was on the way out of town so we stopped in to take a look at the ancient temples.  It was very impressive. 

The Valle dei Tempi or Valley of the Temples features one of the most impressive examples of Greek ruins in the world today.  It is the most visited tourist site in Agrigento, Italy.  Agrigento was originally known as Akragas and then later as Agrigentum before becoming Agrigento.

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Standing on terraced levels at the top of a plateau, with a city plan resembling a chessboard, Akragas was one of the largest Greek cities on the Mediterranean Sea. Eventually enclosed with a defensive wall (featuring 9 entrances) in the 6th Century B.C., the colony saw a period of heavy expansion throughout the 5th Century B.C., during the reign of the tyrant Theron. This expansion continued when democracy was established: Doric temples were erected on the southern hill – a natural border of the southern edge of the plateau (and thus, the city). This was also the battle theatre during the fight between the Romans and Carthaginians over control of the Mediterranean. Later, the city fell into decay and disrepair until finally, the Romans conquered it, dubbing it “Agrigentum.”

The oldest temple in Agrigento is that of Heracles or Hercules, while the best-preserved is that of the Concordia, probably the most impressive Greek Doric temple still extant in our day, after Athens’s Parthenon. The structure was adapted as a Christian church, evidence of which can be seen in the tombs excavated in the ground.

The  Temple to Hera Lacinia (or Juno) was built contemporarily to the Concordia, and it was severely damaged by a fire towards the end of the 5th Century B.C.

Temple of Juno (Hera)

Grave sites

Temple of Concordia

Agrigento

Temple of Hercules

Wagon wheel tracks