The ancient Greek Temple of Concordia (5th C. BC) in Agrigento's Valley of the Temples.
Halfway between the hilltop city of Agrigento and the sea lies a ridge carpeted with olives and almond trees.
Along its top is strung a trio of remarkable 5th century BC Doric temples crafted from honey colored stone, the remnants of ancient Greek Akragas, founded around 581 BC.
At their center stands the Temple of Concord, the most intact ancient Greek building in the world.
There are few spots more magic or beautiful to spend a sunset than in Agrigento's Valley of the Temples. It's a long, full day to see the museum, Insula Romana, and the temples themselves.
The vista of the temple ridge with the sea beyond, once one of Italy's most breathtaking sights from the city, has been despoiled in recent decades by some 600 concrete condominium monstrosities creeping up from the side, erected entirely illegally under the aegis of the mafia.
In fact, this is a good, palpable example of the Cosa Nostra's continuing stranglehold over Sicily; these affronts to aesthetics and the law remain despite their flagrant violation of zoning codes in a land so corrupt that no official has the guts to bulldoze the things.
Fans of Italian literature will note that the early 20th-century Nobel-winning playwright Luigi Priandello came from the wonderfully named nearby village of Kaos down by the sea (though he moved to Palermo as an adolescent).
Agrigento tourist Information:
Via C. Battisti 15 (first left off Via Atenea, just behind Piazzale A. Moro), Agrigento
tel. +39-0922-20-454)
Another information office:
Via Empedocle 73
tel. +39-0922-20-391
Valley of the Temples info:
www.parcovalledeitempli.it
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Agrigento is on the southern coast of Sicily, roughly in the middle, just off Sicily's southern coastal route, the SS115, which—if you are driving the classic ring around Sicily—you can follow from Castelvetrano near Selinute or from Siracusa. If you are not driving, the best way to get to Agrigento is actually by bus. (Unless you're coming from Palermo, in which case the train is faster.) » more
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Agrigento tourist Information:
Via C. Battisti 15 (first left off Via Atenea, just behind Piazzale A. Moro), Agrigento
tel. +39-0922-20-454)
Another information office:
Via Empedocle 73
tel. +39-0922-20-391
Valley of the Temples info:
www.parcovalledeitempli.it
This article was written by Reid Bramblett and was last updated in April 2015.
All information was accurate at the time.
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