We headed south on Thursday to spend the night in Agrigento and visit the grand Valley of the Temples, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Just like Segesta, you will swear that you have been unknowingly teleported to Greece when you visit Valley of the Temples.   The fact that Sicily is home to Greek ruins scattered throughout the island and slowly fading in the relenting heat of the sun came as surprise to us.  What is also surprising is the quantity and quality of these ruins, many of which are located in the Sicilian countryside, uncovered, unprotected and dwarfing even the tallest of olive trees.  The Valle Dei Templi is Italy’s most important and prominent archaeological park and the largest archaeological site in the world. (We thought Greece would have larger sites.)  We also were perplexed on why they call this site a valley since it is located on a ridge outside the town of Agrigento.   There are 7 spectacular, well-preserved Greek temples from the 6th and 5th century B.C. here.  This site also has ruins of other temples, houses, streets and an amphitheatre.  The most impressive and best preserved temple is the Temple of Concordia.  The majority of its columns are still intact with a series of arches that were later added to convert the temple to a Christian church.  The other temples were only partially remaining temples with quite a bit of “ruin rubble” surrounding them.  The most intriguing feature of the “Valley” is the fact that almost all of the surrounding city of Agrigento (a.k. Akragas) remains unexcavated.  Who knows what may lie ahead for a lucky archaeologist?

While all these Italian ruins are quite interesting, we are on an archaeological overload!  We are looking forward to visiting the Balboa Island of the eastern shores of Sicily, our next destination.