Agrigente and the Valley of the Temples

Located on the southernmost dimension of Sicily, Agrigente is famous for its Valley of the Temples. In Vè front century J.C it was the 4th city of the world known with 200,000 inhabitants thanks to its natural wealths, the wheat, oil, the wine, the horses.

The Valley of the Temples gathers about ten Greek temples built with the 6è and 5è centuries av.J.C. Since 1997, the unit is registered with the World heritage of UNESCO. The invasions, plunderings, the earthquakes, the pure and simple abandonment, caused the collapse of the majority of the temples. Only one, the Temple of the Harmony was saved. Its transformation with the 6è century explains its state of remarkable conservation.

As for the Parthenon of Athens, its architecture is an optical good example of correction. The columns are thinned upwards, they are slightly tilted towards the center, they present a bulge to the 2/3 the height, all that to give the impression of perfect verticals.

If one follows the impressive wall of enclosure dug of silos and of cisterns at the time Hellenistic, re–used like necropolis by the Byzantines, one arrives at a paradisiac garden, prone of our next article in Sicily.

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Gerard CROSSAY

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