Valle dei Templi

The "Valley of Temples", a misnomer since the temples are actually on a long ridge paralleling the sea, are located on the southern coast of Sicily outside the modern city of Agrigento. On a beautiful early Spring day we toured the temples and had an afternoon to simply enjoy the sun sites.

From this vantage point at about the center of the ridge line, we're looking eastward towards the Temple of Juno.

The Temple of Juno

The Temple of Juno is in the Doric style and dated to about 450BC.

This is a "mandola" tree, or an almond tree.

The best preserved, and most photographed is the Temple of Conordia (Temple of Peace) sited at the center of the group of temples.

Because it was turned into a church in the 6th century AD, it was partially rebuilt and thereby the best preserved.

The modern town of Agrigento is less that a kilometer from the Valle dei Templi.

Here's the view from Agrigento.

The Temple of Heracles located on the western edge of the Valle dei Templi. These remains are probably the oldest of the temples as seen by the basic flat round capitals.

In the archeological museum, we have a reconstruction of a "stone zeus" that was used as one of the columns of the Temple of Zeus, which is no longer standing. For scale, there is a grand piano at the base of Zeus.

Here's a cork model of what the Temple of Zeus is thought to have looked like. Put this together with the picture above and you can imagine how large the Temple of Zeus must have been.

This cross at the base of the ridge (note the temples on the ridge on the right) was the location of the late Pope John Paul II's visit in 1992. Of note, when he spoke here, it was the first time a Pope had ever uttered the word "Mafia" as he was here right after a high profile murder of a Sicilian judge.