Italia Day 7 - Valle dei Templi

From Trapani we hopped on a bus to Agrigento - 3 hours away on the South Coast. We were only going there for one reason - the Valle dei Templi. The valley includes the remains of 7 ancient Greek temples from the 4th & 5th centuries BC and all I can say is WOW!

We rocked up around 2.30pm & immediately realised we were going to need to take it slow under the searing heat of the sun. The clear blue skies at least meant that it was pretty much impossible to take a bad photo - good news for this extremely amateur photographer.

The first temple we arrived at from the gate was Tempio di Ercole (Temple of Heracles).

One side was pretty much intact.

At the time we visited, there was an exhibition of sculptures by Igor Mitoraj. I didn't note down the names of the works, but I did take photos of most. The juxtaposition of his modern work & the ancient temples was unique & awe-inspiring.

That's Tempio della Concordia (Temple of Concordia) in the background.

This is the most complete of the temples in the park. Apparently it was so well preserved because it was transformed into a Christian church at one stage. All remnants of the church have now been removed.

I braved the blazing heat to take dozens of photos of this temple - I just couldn't believe how close I could get.

Love Igor's work.

This is my favourite sculpture - can you tell why? Just one example of the Italian men we have been hanging out with every day :-)

This is the remains of a Byzantine Necropolis - open tombs.

And here they are with a greek temple & some modern art thrown in for good measure.

Couple of faces scattered about.

Here we have another half-preserved temple - Tempio di Giunone (Temple of Juno Lacinia).

View from Giunone back down the valley to Concordia.

The far side of Giunone.

These lovers were beautiful.

What a set of lips!

The heat was really getting to us after about 2hrs, so the last temple we visited was the Tempio di Giove Olimpico Zeus (The Temple of Olympian Zeus). This was the largest temple, but unfortunately only the foundations & some sections of the wall still remain. However one of the telamons (statues of giants that provided load-bearing support) is laid out nearby.

This photo is out of order but I just wanted to comment. All of Igor's male statues were full-frontal nudity. But all the female private parts were disguised with small decorations. What do you think that's about?

The Valle dei Templi is the most impressive historical site I've visited so far. I suspect only Roma will be able to compete. One word of advice - avoid this place during the height of summer, September was hot enough.