Uniqueness of Agrigento’s Gymnasium

Antique Greek and Roman cities come with a standard number of very recognizable monuments, such as the temples to their gods and goddesses, the Bouleuterion, the Theater, and the Stadium. Less impressive but still important is the Gymnasium and/or the Palaestra.
 
Among the many quoted examples, perhaps the most striking one is the impressive Gymnasium of Olympia, home of the Olympic Games. We can easily visualize the layout, with its central courtyard surrounded by a wide Stoa whose roof was supported by a double row of Doric columns. It was 220 meters long and 120 meters wide, a size that is very close to that of a Stadium (see: Olympia, an ongoing excavation project).

Less known is that besides being a center for physical training, the Gymnasium served for intellectual education, where young men studied rhetoric and the duties of civic life. How exactly this formal education was taught remained rather obscure till this year’s excavations in Akragas (modern Agrigento), the largest colony the Greeks founded in Sicily in 580 BC.
 
This Gymnasium from the 2^nd century BC revealed a semi-circular covered classroom or auditorium in the style of a theater with eight rows of seating, which could accommodate some 160 youngsters. The orchestra was the central space where teachers and students presented their exercises before the audience. This room is a unique example known so far in the Greek world. Archaeologists found two blocks of white limestone with a Greek inscription that could have been used as a pulpit. This inscription, with traces of red pigment, holds the word gymnasiarchos, the director of the Gymnasium, and tells us about the renovation of the apodyterion, the large changing room that got a new roof. The project was appropriately dedicated to Hermes and Heracles, underscoring the role of the Gymnasium as a center for both physical and intellectual development. These gods were associated with youth athletics, and strength.
 
This inscription is also important because, on the one hand, it is one of the very rare texts found in Akragas and, on the other hand, confirms that the Greek language and customs continued to be used far into Roman times.

The auditorium in Akragas opens onto a 23-meter-long and 11-meter-wide hall that holds benches designed for classes and intellectual competitions. Competitiveness was key in the Greek education!
 
Akragas’ Gymnasium also housed a Palaestra, i.e., a section reserved for boxing and wrestling. At present, work is underway to define its layout and role within the entire complex. Elsewhere in the antique world and particularly in smaller cities, a Palaestra could exist as a standalone facility, but that certainly is not the case here. 
 
The premise also included a 200-meter running track and a swimming pool. This year (2026), research will focus on the water supply and map the entire hydraulic system. The team will also investigate the western rooms of the Gymnasium, hoping to find traces of its construction’s history that ranged from the 2^nd century BC to the early days of the Roman Empire.

[Pictures from Institut für Klassische Archäologie]

About Greek/Roman columns and capitals

Well, this is not so much about columns which are the apparent eye-catcher generally drawing our attention toward the remains of a temple, an agora, or a stoa. Capitals are more challenging to pinpoint as they often toppled down after warfare, earthquakes, or other destruction. Although the casual visitor will inevitably notice the columns, he seldom pays attention to the capitals. These, however, tell a story of their own.

We are most familiar with the Doric and Ionic columns and capitals. The Doric order is the oldest one and is found in archaic architecture. It was, in fact, a logical evolution when stone replaced the original wooden beams in the construction of sanctuaries. The stones were cut into drums that could be handled readily and piled one atop the other to the desired height.

We have many temples built in the Doric style, and the highest concentration may be found in places such as Agrigento, Segesta, and Selinunte in Sicily.

Remains of this stone-cutting process are clearly visible at the ancient quarry of Cava di Cusa in Sicily. Since the site was abruptly abandoned, the quarried and half-quarried drums have been left unfinished. Seeing them from so close up and realizing how big such a drum truly was was pretty amazing.

The slim Ionic columns and capitals are generally tied to the Hellenistic period. They are higher and carry their typical elegant curly capital. Once again, it pays off to carefully look at a capital lying on the ground, as is the case in Didyma, Turkey, for instance. Spotting such capital on top of a 20-meter-high column is one thing, but quite another experience to match it to your stature.

Once the drums were stacked, the columns were usually fluted, but not always. In some cases, we find monolithic columns made of more noble materials like marble. They always seem to make a statement.

The Romans favored the Corinthian order, whose capitals were more elaborate. They came in endless variations of acanthus leaves, sometimes mingled with flowers to turn into delicate high-reliefs, almost like lace. It is remarkable to learn that in Gerasa (modern Jerash), Jordan, the Romans removed all the Ionic capitals from the columns on the Cardo and replaced them with Corinthian ones.

By the second century AD, we start seeing the heads of gods and goddesses emerging from among the foliage of the Corinthian acanthus. The first such elaborate examples that struck me were those from the Palazzo delle Colonne in Ptolemais, Libya, with the heads of Jupiter and Mars. There must be many more such examples, of course.

The Greeks and Romans' primary architectural orders are the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian capitals. Other countries and other civilizations had their own versions. The Egyptians loved their papyrus capitals, and the Persians the double bull or lion heads.

Yet, I was very much surprised to see the Pergamene capital as I was strolling through the widespread ruins of Leptis Magna in Libya. Why had I not seen any in Pergamon, Turkey? Did I miss them altogether? I returned to my pictures of Pergamon but found mainly Ionic capitals, besides some Doric and Corinthian. Even the famous Altar of Zeus displayed only Ionic columns. However, the temple of Athena has used Pergamene capitals. 

Otherwise, even after searching the internet, I found only rare examples of this capital inspired by the Egyptian palm columns. Yet, they were all over Leptis Magna, and I feel privileged to have seen them in such large numbers with my own eyes!

In the end, looking at the top of the many columns that still fill our archaeological sites clearly pays off. We may be in for more surprises than expected. 

More traces leading to the origins of winemaking

After discussing the origins of Greek wines (see: Greek wine, not so Greek after all), connoisseurs are now concentrating on the origin of Italian wine. After all, the Mediterranean is a relatively small pond crossed by countless trade routes from early times onwards.

[Picture from The Drinks Business]

Until now, it was generally believed that the production of wine in Italy went back to the Bronze Age (1300-1100 BC) but the recent discovery of ancient pottery indicates that the process was known as early as 4000 BC, i.e. the Copper Age.

A team of archaeologists working at Monte Kronio in Agrigento on the southwest coast of Sicily found remains of wineries, seeds and ancient storage jars. After analyzing the residue inside the jars, they discovered traces of tartaric acid that occur naturally in the winemaking process. This led them to conclude that wine was produced here more than 6000 years ago.

The analysis of the residue is generally impossible because the ancient pottery has to be excavated intact which was the case here. The next step will be to determine whether the wine was red or white – while I automatically assumed (erroneously?) that ancient wine always was red.

An earlier find near Philippi in Greece (see: News about Greek (Macedonian) wine), dated the earliest winemaking to 4200 BC. This once again proves – if proof needed – that trading around the Mediterranean Sea was extremely dense and lively.

The Temple of Zeus in Agrigento in all its glory

When visiting a temple, it is never easy to imagine how it once looked with all the columns and walls intact and all the painted friezes and reliefs. That’s why these short 3D reconstructions come in so handy.

The Temple of Zeus in Agrigento (ancient Akragas) is the largest ever built in Italy – once Magna Graecia – and one of the largest in antiquity after the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus and the Temple of Apollo in Didyma (see: The Valleys of the Temples at Akragas). 

It was built in 480 BC to celebrate the Battle of Himera when the Greek colonists beat the Carthaginians once and for all.

The most remarkable feature of this temple is without doubt the huge Telamone figures (male caryatides) that stood in between the colossal columns of which only a rubble of drums has survived since most remains have been re-used for other constructions like the western pier of nearby Porto Empedocle in the 17^th century.

Thanks to the efforts of a local architect we now have images of what the Temple of Zeus looked like in the fifth century BC, outside and inside. The composition is based on the description left by Diodorus and on studies made by great archaeologists like Pirro Marconi.

Diodorus Siculus – Books 11-12.37.1 on Xerxes and Sicily

Diodorus Siculus, Books 11-12.37.1 (ISBN 0-292-71277-4) is probably best known as published in the Loeb Classical Library version, but his time I have opted for the alternative version translated and introduced by nobody less than Peter Green.

Diodorus was a Greek historian from Agrigento in Sicily, who lived ca. 100-30 BC and who wrote a world history covering forty books. His history was divided into three parts: the mythical history of peoples, non-Greek, and Greek till the Trojan War; the history till Alexander’s death in 323 BC; and finally the history until 54 BC. Not all books have survived, but we do have Books I to V, where Diodorus writes about the Egyptians, Assyrians, Ethiopians, and Greeks, and Books XI to XX, handling Greek history from 480 till 302 BC. Of the other volumes, we only have fragments.

Book 11 covers the period from 480 BC to 451 BC, meaning from the year King Xerxes of Persia launched his expedition against Greece till Pericles’ citizenship law. Books 12.1.1 to 12.37.1 tell us about the prosperity in mainland Greece, the fight over Cyprus, the internal wars in Sicily, and their peace treaty with Carthage.

It is known that Diodorus used good and reliable sources. He is the only ancient historian covering Greek history from the days of Xerxes’ invasion to the War of the Diadochi following the death of Alexander the Great.

This version, unlike the Loeb book that was translated back in 1946, is set in modern-day English and is enhanced with the most up-to-date historical information and footnotes. Besides the many useful maps, Peter Green has also added a precious Chronological Table of events shown in parallel as happening in Mainland Greece; in the Aegean, Asia and Africa; and in Sicily & the West. In fact, it relates a very comprehensive piece of history. I used this “alternative” translation for my recent trip to Sicily as a most precious travel companion. 

The Battle of Himera, a major confrontation

The history of Sicily is a very complicated one. To simplify things, I like to state that the Greeks colonized the island starting as early as the 8th century BC and that their success was such that it raised the envy and jealousy of the Carthaginians, which led to repeated quarrels and battles. Of course, this is a very simplistic explanation because “the Greeks” came from different cities and city-states in the motherland, where they fought among themselves: Corinth, Athens, and Sparta, or from the islands of Rhodes and Crete. By the fifth century BC, mainland Greece suffered from two nearly consecutive invasions by the mighty Persian army, the first in 492-490 BC, which ended with the Battle of Marathon under Darius I, and the second led by King Xerxes I in 480-479 BC, which was settled with the Battle of Plataea and the naval Battle of Mycale. At the same time, the Carthaginians had reached an agreement with the Persians to reduce the Greeks in Sicily, meaning that Persia was, although indirectly, attacking simultaneously on two fronts.

The Carthaginians may have seized the opportune moment now that Sicily was divided among their allies (Selinus (Selinunte) and Himera) and their enemies (Syracuse and Akragas (Agrigento)). They had already conquered several cities on the west and north coasts of the island, like Motya and Panormos (Palermo), and now saw their chance to extend their power further eastward. Carthage had a powerful general Hamilcar, who led both military and naval forces on his warships across the Libyan Sea.

Terillos of Himera was his ally against Syracuse, a tyrant who lacked popular support. In 483 BC, the situation changed as Theron, tyrant of Akragas, deposed Terillos and added Himera to his own realm. Himera was now in the adverse camp, and it is not surprising that Terillos asked the Carthaginians for help to fight against his enemies. He had, however, to wait almost three years before Hamilcar decided to organize an expedition against Sicily.

I am being taken to the very heart of this decisive battle by Michael Metcalfe as I am travelling around Sicily on a tour organized by Peter Sommer Travels “Exploring Sicily”. Before arriving at Himera, I was captivated by Michael’s lively re-enactment of entering the Castle of Eurialo, and I took in the reasons for the solid defenses against the Carthaginians at Motya and Gela. As the tour moved on, the rich historical remains of Syracuse and the sacred area around the sanctuaries of Agrigento, Selinunte, and Segesta have all been mentally reconstructed – even the quarry of Cave di Cusa abandoned since the Carthaginian invasion, looked very real. With my fellow-aficionados, we now flock around Michael to hear how this major battle between the Sicilian allies and Carthage evolved.

As so many times before, Michael is quoting from Diodorus Siculus, a Sicilian historian who lived in the first century BC, and he is voicing the full action. We are actually standing opposite Himera inside the remains of a Doric temple, believed to be the Temple of Victory, built as a celebration just after the war. On the left was the encampment of the Carthagian navy, and on the right the one reserved for their landforces. As always, the figures in antiquity were very much inflated, and Diodorus is no exception when he mentions that 300,000 men and 200 warships went underway together with a fleet of 3,000 and more merchantmen to transport the supplies. Modern historians have calculated that 200 ships is a fair amount, and since they could never have held 1,500 men each, they concluded that 150 men per vessel is about right. This would bring the total number of soldiers to 30,000, i.e., 1/10th of what is being reported. The same logic can be applied to the merchantmen, which would reach 300 instead of 3,000.

Holding Diodorus’ account in hand, Michael tells us how the army had suffered badly from a storm during which Hamilcar lost the vessels carrying his horses and chariots. He first made a halt in the harbor of Panormos (modern Palermo), where he spent three days repairing the storm damage and resting his troops. From here, he marched towards Himera, with the fleet escorting him along the way. Here, the warships were hauled ashore, and the encampments were surrounded by a deep ditch and wooden palisade. After the army supplies were unloaded, the merchants were sent back with orders to bring in more grain and other goods from Libya and Sardinia. Hamilcar then marched on Himera, located on the slope ahead of us, with the pick of his troops, killing many of the Himerans who had ventured out of the city walls. Hamilcar’s daring action scared Theron, the ruler of Akragas, whose role it was to protect Himera, and he decided to send an urgent message to Syracuse for help. Gelon of Syracuse had a huge army in readiness, and as soon as he received the call from Theron, he marched from Syracuse with 50,000 infantry and over 5,000 cavalry according to Diodorus, although 10,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry sounds more reasonable – a large force anyway. Watching the arrival of Gelon’s men must have been quite comforting to the Himerans, who I picture standing on the roofs of their houses or on a safe spot on the city walls.

While setting up his own encampment outside the city (and Michael points to the plain behind us), Theron sent his cavalry out against the Carthaginians, roaming the countryside in search of easy plunder. At least 1,000 men were rounded up and made prisoners. At this stage, and as strange as it may seem, the inhabitants of Himera came to respect Gelon and despise the Carthaginians.

Gelon, who by now was generally accepted as a man of outstanding generalship and clear insight, started to look for an easy way to outwit his enemy without having to sacrifice the lives of his own men. He knew that Hamilcar was preparing for a lavish sacrifice to the gods, and he felt that this was his chance to set the enemy’s fleet afire. Luck was on his side when horsemen reached him with a message that was intercepted from a courier on his way to deliver letters from the people of Selinus to the enemy camp. These letters mentioned that they would send their cavalry on the day Hamilcar had asked for them. A chance opportunity for Gelon since that day was the same as the one planned for the Carthaginian sacrifices. The tyrant of Syracuse sent out a cavalry of his own, ordering them to take a wide loop and making it look as if they were the couriers coming from Selinus. Once inside the Carthaginian stockade, their instructions were to kill Hamilcar and set his ships afire.

From our vantage point inside the temple, it feels as if we can overlook the entire operation, and we hold our breath together with the people of Himera, who are living between hope and fear. Scouts had been posted high up the surrounding hills, for they would signal when the horsemen arrived inside the enemy’s camp.

At sunrise, the fake friendly cavalry rode up to the Carthaginians and was admitted inside the camp by the guards as their supposed allies. They rode straight up to the place where Hamilcar was holding his sacrifice, killed the general, and set fire to the ships. At this point, the scouts in the hills gave the signal, and Gelon advanced with his entire army in close order. The Carthaginians were entirely taken by surprise, trumpets sounded the alarm, and a fierce battle developed. But when the flames of their burning ships rose high into the sky, and the news of Hamilcar’s death started to spread among his men, most Carthaginians got disheartened, and the Greeks took courage. Gelon had given instructions that no one should be taken alive, and the carnage of the fugitives must have been horrendous. Since the heat of the battle was probably fought at the very spot where we are listening to this vivid story, I stare at my feet, realizing the soil must have been soaked in blood – an uneasy feeling to say the least, even after so many centuries. Reasonable figures mention that 30,000 men were killed or wounded, and certainly not all casualties fell in the enemy camp. Wow, what a place to be standing!

The temple that is our vantage point was, in fact, built by the Carthaginians taken captive on the orders of Gelon of Syracuse. Its dedication to Niké/Victory is uncertain, for it may as well have been built in honor of Athena. In any case, it was destroyed and burnt to the ground soon after its completion, and most likely in 409 BC when the Carthaginians attacked the city of Himera again.

After his victory, Gelon rewarded the brave cavalry that had killed Hamilcar and gave out decorations to other valorous combatants. The prisoners were shared proportionally among his allies, who employed them as laborers on public works. Akragas got most of the workforce, mainly because many of the Carthaginian soldiers had fled into the interior, inside Akragas’ territory in particular. They were the men who quarried the stones (like at Cave di Cusa) and who worked on the construction of many temples, the biggest being the Temple of Zeus (see: The Valley of the Temples at Akragas, Sicily). They were also forced to dig out the extravagant swimming pool in Akragas, which served as a water reservoir and a pond for fresh fish. This pond did not last long since it was drained approximately one century later to eventually become a garden where the Arabs cultivated their oranges, the Kolymbetra Garden.

Peace had returned to Himera, but it was short-lived. The Carthaginians had not forgotten their bitter defeat, and they attacked again in 409 BC when Sicily was torn apart by internal conflicts. This time, Himera was razed to the ground and never rebuilt.

So much for the proud city of Himera and so much for this unique experience: Thank you, Michael!

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History – Volume VIII on Alexander

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History (ISBN 0-674-99464-7) is probably best known as published in the Loeb Classical Library version, with the left page in original Greek and the right page translated in parallel into English by C. Bradford Welles.

Diodorus was a Greek historian from Agrigento in Sicily, who lived ca. 100-30 BC and who wrote a world history covering forty books. His history was divided in thee parts: the mythical history of peoples, non-Greeks and Greeks till the Trojan War; the history till Alexander’s death in 323 BC; and finally the history until 54 BC.  Not all books have survived, but we do have Books I to V where Diodorus writes about the Egyptians, Assyrians, Ethiopians and Greeks, and Books XI to XX handling Greek history from 480 till 302 BC. Of the other volumes we only have fragments.

In general, Diodorus used good and reliable sources, most of them now lost like Ephorus, Apollodorus, Agatharchides, Philistus and Timaesus. Although I personally have a preference for Arrian’s accounts when it comes to Alexander, it is always interesting to cross-reference the events and figures with Diodorus’ version.

Alexander is treated in Loeb’s Diodorus Siculus Volume VIII, containing Books XVI.66 to XVII. Just like all Loeb’s books, this one contains a detailed index at the end and also interesting maps of Sicily, Greece and one showing Alexander’s conquests.

For whoever is interested in Alexander the Great, this definitely is a faithful reading companion together with the histories written by Arrian, Plutarch and Curtius Rufus.

More temples in Sicily to be proud of

Because of its high concentration of temples, the Valley of Temples in Agrigento is the most striking and best-known collection in Sicily. But obviously, there are many more temples on other sites, which leads to confusion and often makes it difficult to pinpoint which temple is standing where. They all belong to the sixth and fifth centuries BC, the heyday of Magna Graecia, yet each is unique.

Take, for instance, Segesta, located inland in northwestern Sicily, beautifully nestled amid the rolling hills covered with olive trees and vineyards. It is one of those places you could say was chosen by the gods - that is, Greek gods, of course!

This temple definitely fits my earlier description of The perfection of a Greek temple. Yet the strangest thing about this temple is that it was built only to show off; it was never finished and never used. It seems it was constructed in a hurry to impress the Athenian ambassadors, on whom the inhabitants counted for support in their war against Selinunte and Syracuse. All they wanted was the Athenians’ support. Today, many tourists are still impressed!

The temple lies on a low hill on the loveliest spot you can imagine, amidst the spring flowers set against the darker wooded hill in the background. Although we do not know to which god or goddess it was dedicated, it is generally assumed to be the work of a great Athenian master. Dating from between 426-416 BC, it is one of the grandest monuments in the Doric style, covering a surface of 58 x 23meters. The 9-meter-high columns with a base of two meters in diameter were never fluted. However, one hardly notices this detail when admiring the still-standing 36 columns with the entire entablature and pediments. It could have been built just yesterday, mainly since the bosses meant to lift the stone blocks have not been removed. Sadly, the temple has been fenced off for security reasons, for it adds so much to the general atmosphere to actually walk inside its walls.

On the other hand, the picture of Selinunte is entirely different as this city counts two separate groups of temples dating from the same period but still unidentified and, for that reason, simply referred to by a letter. Most sanctuaries have collapsed due to repeated earthquakes or have been handily plundered for reuse in other structures.

Temple E, probably dedicated to Hera, is the first one I see. It looks pretty much complete, for at least all the columns of this Doric building of 490-480 BC are standing (re-erected in 1958). Parts of the entablature and the inner cella walls have also been preserved. Just behind Temple E, Temple F is the oldest one on this hill, dating from circa 560-540 BC, and was probably dedicated to Aphrodite. Next is Temple G, perhaps dedicated to Zeus and with its 110x50m hardly smaller than its namesake in Agrigento (110x53m). This Temple of Zeus has more columns, i.e., 8x17, which is the same number of columns present at the Parthenon in Athens. It was left unfinished when Hannibal destroyed Selinunte in 409 BC. It was of colossal proportions, for the columns were 16 meters high, and the diameter at the base was 3.4 meters. And if that is not enough to convince you of the sheer size, each drum weighs about 100 tons! How the craftsmen in those days were able to move and hoist such blocks is baffling.

On top of the Acropolis is another group of much smaller temples, of which less remains. Temples A and O have the same size and count the same number of columns (6x15), although the layout is hard to figure out. The much larger Temple C, with colossal monolithic columns, is no more than a heap of rubble piled on top of the crepidoma. This situation also applies to the other Temples B and D. All in all, the Temple of Hera (E) is the most representative and best preserved here at Selinunte.

As I said above, it is challenging to imagine the procedure and process of temple building. So I am thrilled to visit the quarries of Cave di Cusa, roughly 18 kilometers away from Selinunte. 

This is not just any quarry but one where work was unexpectedly interrupted the day Selinunte was attacked by the Carthaginians in 409 BC. This is a unique opportunity to follow the entire cutting procedure since nothing has been touched or moved since that date, some 2,500 years ago! The whole process of quarrying can be tracked here, from the initial vertical drills in the rock along the previously drawn circle that was a little larger than the final diameter of the drum to the round column drums still attached to their base. There is a space of just half a meter for the stonemason to move around the cut the column. It is believed that the largest drums, measuring 3m x 2m, were intended for Temple G, which was probably dedicated to Zeus. In any case, I am dwarfed next to any of these drums. Some have rolled downhill and lie where they were stranded so many centuries ago, and never were taken to the construction site where they would have been adjusted and hoisted into position. What a way to visualize this backbreaking work!

Blue Guide, Sicily by Ellen Grady

Simply the best! The editor of this Blue Guide, Sicily (ISBN 978-1-905131-54-9) is Dr Michael Metcalfe, whom I had the immense pleasure to meet on several trips organized by Peter Sommer Travels.

This travel guide starts with a sketchy presentation of Sicily’s complex history. After that, each province of Sicily is being explained in detail, beginning each time with a short history of its own followed by the role its capital and other main cities played over the centuries, highlighting the main buildings and others, inclusive opening hours, entrance fees and handy phone numbers. Clear town plans and site maps help the prospective visitor to find his way among the Graeco-Roman ruins and in the web of streets and alleys of these cities and towns. Key events or key personalities receive special attention in a framed window, and clear drawings and an occasional (black & white) picture definitely help to get a good idea of what to expect.

At the end of each chapter treating a separate province, there is a list of hotels and restaurants that deserve to be taken into consideration. That goes for all the provinces of Sicily: Palermo, Trapani, Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Enna, Ragusa, Syracuse, Catania and Messina.

The guide concludes with some practical information about opening hours, emergency numbers, means of communication and travel, and finally some details about accommodation and the island’s wide range of typical food and drinks (wines). There also is a glossary of special terms, mostly pertaining to Greek temples and theatres, handily completed with drawings of the basic temple design, the classical orders of the temples, the design of ancient theatres, as well as the names and shapes of all kinds of pottery one can encounter. It also includes a list of Sicilian architects, painters and sculptors. At the very end of the guide holds a full road map of Sicily and a series of more detailed maps by province. In short, everything you need to know before heading for this beautiful island but also extremely useful while travelling around.

To my greatest pleasure and utmost satisfaction I did indeed visit this island in a two-weeks tour led by Dr Michael Metcalfe in person (for the tour details of Peter Sommer Travels, see Exploring Sicily), who truly brought Sicily and its rich history and culture to life!

The Valley of the Temples at Akragas, Sicily

My first glance at these temples is quite exciting as I discover them on a high ridge above the road, playing hide and seek with the passing trees. According to my map, the string of temples at Akragas (modern Agrigento) is located between two rivers, the Hypsas and the Akragas, but why this place high up the ridge is called “The Valley of the Temples” I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense to me.

Roughly, all these temples were built within a period of one hundred years, somewhere between 500 BC for the Temple of Heracles and 400 BC for the enormous Temple of Zeus. The 6th and 5th centuries BC were definitely the most prosperous times for Akragas, which was founded as a colony of Gela in 580 BC to become one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia, with a population of as many as 100,000 to 200,000 people. The Carthaginians captured the city in 406 BC and burnt it to the ground, selling its inhabitants as slaves. Soon afterwards, Akragas fell victim to the disputes between Rome and Carthage during the First Punic War. After besieging the city and defeating the Carthaginians in 261 BC, the inhabitants were once again sold as slaves, this time by the Romans. Six years later, the Carthaginians recaptured the city, but in the end, they had to surrender it to Rome, ending the Second Punic War. In 210 BC, the Romans took possession of Akragas and renamed it Agrigentum, although Greek was still the common language. Those were hard times for such a proud city!

The temples we see here today do not tell this gruesome story and only testify to Magna Graecia’s grandeur. The best known is the Temple of Concord, simply because this is the best preserved sanctuary of the Greek world after the Temple of Hephaistos in Athens. It was built around 430 BC and suffered only slight damage from the Carthaginian invasion. It is a rather standard construction in Doric style, counting 6x13 columns nearly 7 meters high, that has kept its cella nearly intact thanks to the fact that it was converted into a church. This sounds familiar after seeing what has been done to the Temple of Apollo in Syracuse, with that difference, however, that here, except for the arches in the nave, the building has been entirely stripped of its Christian additions. Its location is absolutely superb as it shines there at the end of the Sacred Road, even without the coat of original white stucco that was enhanced with red, blue, green, and yellow details. It must have been visible from quite a distance!

When I enter ”The Valley of the Temples”, my first stop, however, is at the Temple of Hera, clinging to the edge of the cliff. For security reasons, I am not allowed inside. It is slightly smaller and about 20 years older than the Temple of Concord, although it has as many columns. This temple is in poorer condition, with only parts of the columns and the cella walls still standing, as it suffered from the (still visible) devastating Carthaginian fires in 406 BC. In fact, it is surprising that so much of the temple has survived after all.

As this Temple of Hera lies on higher ground, I have an excellent view over the city walls, which are generally an extension of the steep cliff that has been hollowed out to leave only a wall of some sort. More to the right and parallel to this wall runs the said Via Sacra that leads to the Temple of Concord and beyond that to the Temple of Heracles and across the modern road to the enormous Temple of Zeus. It is a beautiful walk among the blossoming trees and high grasses, overlooking the valley below.

Passing the Temple of Concord, I reach the end of the Via Sacra at the Temple of Heracles, which has only one row of nine columns left to fuel my imagination. This is by far the oldest temple of Akragas, built around 500 BC, and is a little larger than the two previous ones, counting originally 6 by 15 columns. It also has suffered badly from the Carthaginian destruction of 406 BC, and traces of fire are still visible. In its heyday, it contained a painting by the most famous artist of the ancient world, Zeuxis. I wonder what this must have looked like.

Across the modern road are the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus that defy my wildest imagination. It was built in Doric style by the Carthaginians taken prisoners during the battle of Himera in 480 BC and measures as much as 110x53m, i.e., a double square, and for that reason it is unique among the Greek temples. It counted 7x14 columns, rounded on the outside and square on the inside, a staggering 4m across and 16.7m high. In between stood statues of colossal Telamones  (male caryatids), 38 pieces in all. A few of these Telamones or parts of them have been recovered and give an idea of the oversized proportions of the temple. Archaeologists have not yet agreed on the final layout of this temple, which has suffered from repeated earthquakes and from quarrying for several local projects. This Temple of Zeus was not finished in 406 BC when the Carthaginians arrived, and we know that it was converted into a fortress in 255 BC so the inhabitants and the Roman garrison could take shelter here from the Carthaginian attack. Walking among these huge blocks, it is very difficult to mentally reconstruct this sanctuary, and the remains of a few Telamones stretched out in their full length around the temple add to the general confusion about its true proportions. Luckily, the local museum shows a model reconstruction of the temple, at least one of the possibilities, putting things more or less in perspective. The benefit of visiting these remains lies in the details. When you see the sheer size of the triglyphs or the large U-shaped incisions on some of the stones that were used to lift the enormous blocks, you can somehow visualize the biblical proportions of this temple that certainly deserves the addition of Olympian to the name of Zeus.

Further to the west are the poor remains of the city of Akragas from the 6th century BC, divided by three five-meter-wide north-south streets. Much of the city was rebuilt in Hellenistic times, but only the base of the walls remains visible. At the far end of this plain dotted with patches of flowers of all colors, one can see the Sanctuary of the Chthonic Divinities (the gods of the earth), in which two temples of the 7th century BC have been erroneously assembled together in 1836. It is easy to recognize the two large altars in front of this reconstruction, belonging to the same period, a round and a square one. There are more remains of other temples, but I can't properly figure them out.

Behind this section of the Chthonic Sanctuary lies a small valley that separates me from the two columns that belong to the Temple of Hephaistos, which I can see among the trees. Down below lies the so-called Kolymbetra Garden, where a pool was dug by the same Carthaginian prisoners mentioned above, taken at Himera in 480 BC. It was meant to serve as a water reservoir and a pond for fresh fish. This pond was rather short-lived as approximately one century later, it was drained to become a garden where Arabs cultivated oranges. Unfortunately, there is no time to visit the Garden or the poor remains of the Temple of Hephaistos.

The site of Akragas and its “Valley of the Temple” covers an area of approximately 4.5 x 3 kilometers, and this means that even a full day’s visit is not enough to see it all. 

But a stop at the local museum is an absolute must, if only to see the one original re-erected Telamon. I feel dwarfed next to this enormous statue, and even next to the three rescued Telamon-heads! Together with the abovementioned reconstruction of the Temple of Zeus, these definitely are the highlights of the museum. Yet several other artifacts deserve attention. For a start, there is a terracotta Dinos with a triangular pattern from Gela belonging to the end of the 7th century BC, a pattern that still stands as a symbol for the triangular shape of Sicily and that is reproduced in colorful copies for tourists. Then there is a lovely marble head of a veiled goddess, probably Demeter from the end of the 5th century BC; a marble statue of a warrior in a style typical for 480-475 BC; a delicate statue of a young athlete, smaller than life-size and thought to be victorious at the Olympic Games dated to 480 BC; a small headless statue of Aphrodite bathing and wringing her hair in late Hellenistic style from Rhodes; fragments of Archaic architectural terracotta elements from the sixth century BC, probably belonging to the Temple of Zeus; a rather static Kouros-head from around 450 BC; and a wide range of terracotta heads, amphorae and craters from the fifth and fourth century BC. Quite a number of showcases are not lit, whether this is for economic reasons or because of some defect, I don’t know.

Strangely enough, this museum is partially built over what once was the Hellenistic ekklesiasterion that could hold 3,000 citizens for assemblies. It looks very much like an eroded semi-circular theatre, as it was leveled to accommodate the foundations of a later Roman temple. The 13th-century church of San Nicola, built with materials from nearby Roman constructions, does not help to get a clear view of this area.

I take one last glance back at where I came from. “The Valley of the Temples” with the Temple of Concord is beautifully framed by the trees in the foreground. What a place to truly taste the past!

[Click here to see all my pictures of Agrigento]

[Click here to see all my pictures of the Museum of Agrigento]