Onward to Greek ruins of Agrigento

Two rock-hard bodies in a Sicilian museum.

We traveled by bus from Trapani to Agrigento, which is situated on the southern coast. We went first to the Museo Archeologico, which has a huge amount of statues and pottery that mark various advances and declines in workmanship and technology. Probably the most notable artifact is a giant statue that was one of 38 which formerly decorated a temple that was staggeringly huge. The weather-worn 25-foot tall telamon used to be part of the temple’s decoration—and it didn’t even come halfway up the columns of the gargantuan temple itself. The giant had his arms bent back over his shoulders in a pose showing that he was holding up a beam. As tall as he was, he looked small compared to the model of the temple that shows where he and the other giants may have once stood. It is estimated from architectural remains that the temple reached about 11 stories high.

This is a model showing one of the possible configurations of the temple
that used the huge telamons as decorations.

Then we visited the Valley of the Temples (Valle dei Templi), a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the greatest legacies of ancient Greece. These well-preserved Doric temples, just outside town, date back to the fifth and sixth centuries BC and are what remain of the Greek city of Akragas. Afterwards we had a huge seafood based dinner at a local restaurant and spent the night in Agrigento.

Our tour group in front of the Temple of Concordia in Agrigento.