Page 441 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

Gregorio, with tickets from €30, though the average price is nearer €50: call 0922

20 500 for details of the programme, or ask at the tourist office.

Brief history

In 581 BC, colonists from nearby Gela and Rhodes founded the city of Akragas
between the rivers of Hypsas and Akragas. This was the concluding act of expansion
that had seen Geloans spread west along the high points of their trade routes, subduing

and Hellenizing the indigenous populations as they went. They surrounded the new city
with a mighty wall, formed in part by a higher ridge where they placed the acropolis
(and where, today, the modern town stands). The southern limit of the ancient city was
a second, lower ridge, and it was here, in the so-called Valle dei Templi (Valley of
the Temples), that the city architects erected their sacred buildings during the fifth

century BC. They were – and are – stunning in their effect, reflecting the wealth and
luxury of ancient Agrigento: “Athens with improvements”, as Henry Adams had it in
1899.

The eastern zone

The eastern zone is the more popular, and is at its least crowded in the early
morning, or when it’s floodlit in striking amber light at night. From the eastern

entrance, a path climbs up to the Tempio di Giunone (Juno, or Hera), an engaging
structure, half in ruins, standing at the very edge of the spur on which the temples were
built. A long altar has been reconstructed at the far end of the temple; the patches of
red visible here and there on the masonry denote fire damage, probably from the sack
of Akragas by the Carthaginians in 406 BC.

Tempio della Concordia

Following the line of the ancient city walls that hug the ridge, Via Sacra leads west to
the Tempio della Concordia (Concord), dating from around 430 BC. Perfectly
preserved and beautifully situated, with fine views to the city and the sea, the tawny

stone lends the structure warmth and strength. It’s the most complete of the temples,
and has required less renovation than the others, mainly thanks to its conversion in the
sixth century AD to a Christian church. Restored in the eighteenth century to its (more
or less) original layout, the temple has kept its simple lines and slightly tapering
columns, although sadly it’s fenced off from the public. Circle the temple at least once
to get a decent view, and stand well back to admire its elegant proportions.

Tempio di Ercole

From the Tempio della Concordia, Via Sacra continues past the site of the city’s
ancient necropolis and across what remains of a deep, wheel-rutted Greek street to the
oldest of Akragas’s temples, the Tempio di Ercole (Hercules). Probably begun in the