Agrigento is a small town of 60,000 residents that lies on the south coast of Sicily, a region of the Italian republic. The town is famous for having been one of the leading cities of the Golden Age of the Greek Empire, known as Magna Graecia or Greater Greece, and retains to this day some of the finest Greek ruins in Sicily!! These temples were built on a plateau which overlooks the coast and sea, and offers a wonderful ancient Greek experience!! This area is known as the ‘Valley of the Temples’, and consists of a large sacred site on which seven ancient temples were built, some of which are still impressive buildings, whilst others have been damaged by earthquakes and used as quarries!!
Agrigento was established in the 580’s B.C. by the Greek colonists from Gela, who named it Akragas, and which rapidly became one of the richest and most famous colonies in Magna Graecia. The ancient site lies along a long rocky scarp on the southern limits of the town and was used to build the great temples of ancient Akragas, which today form one of the world’s most important Greek archaeological sites. It was made an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998, and as such is protected for the rest of time for the world to see. The site consists not only of the Doric styled temples constructed on the 6th and 5th centuries B.C., but also a necropolis, houses, streets, a small amphitheatre and everything else you would expect to see in an ancient city. There is also a notable Archaeological Museum which houses items of interest and clearly displays the chronological development of the area.
Although famous for its Greek buildings, Agrigento is located several kilometres from the Valley of the Temples and over the years has been home to other cultures notably the Carthaginians, the Romans and the Byzantine Empires. In 828 the town was taken by the Saracens, only to be taken by the Normans in 1087, who of course brought Christianity to Akragas and made the area a Bishopric, leaving some beautiful churches in and around town. These cultural influences have left us with a small medieval centre which has a certain charm, with high in the historical area the 14th century Romanesque Gothic Cathedral, and the 13th century Church of Santa Maria dei Greci being living testimony to this history.
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