Aperçu
The Valley of the Temples occupies a sandstone ridge south of modern Agrigento (ancient Akragas / Agrigentum) on Sicily’s southern coast. Founded by Geloan colonists c. 580 BCE, Akragas became one of the richest Greek cities of the west. In the 5th century BCE its tyrants and citizens raised a line of monumental Doric temples along the city’s southern wall — today named for Concordia, Juno Lacinia, Heracles, Olympian Zeus (the unfinished Olympieion with giant atlas figures), Castor and Pollux, and Vulcan.
The Temple of Concordia is among the best-preserved Doric temples anywhere, owing to its medieval conversion into a church. Excavation and anastylosis from the 18th century onward, and the modern archaeological park, make the ridge a continuous outdoor museum. UNESCO inscribed the area in 1997. Pair with Paestum and the Acropolis of Athens for complementary Doric sacred landscapes.
