From B&B MiraValle Agrigento you can reach the Valley of the Temples by bus or car in just 7 minutes.
The Valley of the Temples is an archaeological area of Sicily, notable for its exceptional state of preservation and for a series of important Doric temples from the Hellenic period. It corresponds to ancient Akragas, the monumental original nucleus of the city of Agrigento. Today it is a regional archaeological park.
Since 1997 the entire area has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage list. It is considered a sought-after tourist destination, as well as the symbol of the city and one of the main ones on the whole island. The archaeological and landscape park of the Valley of the Temples, with its 1,300 hectares, is the largest archaeological site in the world.
In 2011 it was visited by 583,465 people.
The Temples
The Valley of the Temples features the remains of as many as ten temples in the Doric order, three sanctuaries, a great concentration of necropolises (Montelusa; Mosè; Pezzino; the Roman necropolis and tomb of Theron; the early Christian one; Acrosoli); hydraulic works (the Garden of the Kolymbetra and the Hypogea); fortifications; part of a Hellenistic-Roman quarter built on a Greek plan; two important meeting places: the lower Agora (not far from the remains of the Temple of Olympian Zeus) and the upper Agora (located within the museum complex); an Olympeion and a Bouleuterion (council hall) from the Roman era on a Greek plan. The names of the temples and their identifications, except that of theOlympeion, are presumed to be mere humanistic speculation, which have nevertheless remained in common use.
- • The Temple of Hera Lacinia, or Temple of Juno, was built in the 5th century BC and set on fire in 406 by the Carthaginians. It was the temple where weddings were usually celebrated.
- • The Temple of Concordia, whose name derives from a Latin inscription found near the temple, also built in the 5th century. It is in all likelihood the best preserved today, partly because it was converted into a Christian temple in the 6th century AD.
- • The Temple of Heracles, or Temple of Hercules, whose cult was very important in ancient Akragas. It is one of the oldest constructions. Destroyed by an earthquake, eight columns remain standing today.
- • The Temple of Olympian Zeus, built after the victory of Himera over the Carthaginians (480-479) to honour Zeus. It was the largest temple in the entire ancient West and unique in its kind of architecture. It was characterised by the presence of the telamons, immense seven-and-a-half-metre sculptures depicting Atlas supporting the celestial vault. One of these is still on the site, while another Telamon from the Olympeion is in the archaeological museum of Agrigento.
- • The Temple of the Dioscuri, or Temple of Castor and Pollux. The temple actually stands within the sanctuary of the chthonic deities, so it was probably built in honour of the deities of the earth (Demeter, Persephone, Dionysus) and not the Dioscuri.
- • The Temple of Hephaestus, or Temple of Vulcan.
- • The Temple of Athena. Built away from the valley proper, it stands in the historic centre of the city of Agrigento. On the base of the temple now stands the medieval church of Santa Maria dei Greci.
- • Temple L, discovered by recent excavations, is a construction already completely destroyed in the classical era.
- • The Temple of Asclepius, or Temple of Aesculapius, part of an extra-urban sanctuary built far from the city walls, a place of pilgrimage for the sick seeking healing.
- • The Temple of Demeter and the rock sanctuary of Demeter. The temple stands in the eastern part of the city, on the side of the slope where the Rupe Atenea ends in the valley of the river Akragas. From the terrace of the Temple of Demeter, via a staircase carved into the rock, you reach the sanctuary below, entirely dug inside the hill.
- • The Temple of Isis. It is located within the San Nicola museum complex. ⏎ The Valley of the Temples also houses the so-called Tomb of Theron, a sizeable pyramid-shaped tuff monument, thought to have been erected to commemorate those who fell in the Second Punic War.
Source: Wikipedia
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