{"id":3457,"date":"2015-10-12T16:09:24","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T14:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/?p=3457"},"modified":"2025-11-17T14:09:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T13:09:22","slug":"valley-of-the-temples","status":"publish","type":"attrazione","link":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/","title":{"rendered":"The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":40087,"template":"","categories":[1933,1918,1931,1932,1936],"luogo":[2945],"stagione":[1874,1877,1875,1876],"class_list":["post-3457","attrazione","type-attrazione","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sicilia-archeologica-en","category-arte-e-cultura-en","category-arte-in-sicilia-en","category-luoghi-della-cultura-en","category-unesco-en","luogo-agrigento","stagione-autumn","stagione-spring","stagione-summer","stagione-winter"],"acf":{"galleria":false,"paragrafo_1":"<p>The rediscovery of <em>Akragas <\/em>began towards the end of the 18th century, when the first European travellers arrived and ventured into Sicily, discovering an unexpected and immense artistic and archaeological heritage.<\/p>\n<p>In an enchanted valley with flowering almond trees, there stands the most impressive monumental ensemble of <strong>Hellenic architecture in Sicily<\/strong>. In this mixture of man-made cultural environment and natural landscape lies all the charm of this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/brochure\/siti-unesco\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UNESCO<\/a> World Heritage Site.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.parcovalledeitempli.it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Valle dei Templi \u2013 the Valley of the Temples \u2013<\/a>\u00a0is undoubtedly the most important vestige of ancient classical culture in Sicily. It comprises the temples of the gods, as well as the necropolis area and the extra-moenia sanctuaries.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The\u00a0Temple of the Dioscuri<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Temple of the Dioscuri<\/strong>\u00a0(Castor and Pollux), the legendary twins born from the union of the queen of Sparta with Jupiter, now has only four columns and has become the symbol of the city of Agrigento.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The\u00a0Temple of Olympian Zeus\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Temple of Olympian Zeus<\/strong>\u00a0(Jupiter) was built to thank the god Zeus for the 480 BC victory of the Agrigentines over the Carthaginians. Here are the Telamones, gigantic statues with human features.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The\u00a0Temple of Concordia<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Temple of Concordia<\/strong>, also built around the 5th century, is located along the\u00a0<strong>Via Sacra<\/strong>\u00a0and is the best preserved. In the 6th century, it was transformed into a sacred building. The name\u00a0<em>Concordia<\/em>\u00a0comes from a Latin inscription found in the vicinity of the temple.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Statue of Icarus<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In front of the temple, we can admire the\u00a0<strong>Statue of Icarus<\/strong>, donated by the Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj. The statue represents the fall of Icarus, who disobeyed his father Daedalus, flew too close to the sun, burnt his wax wings and fell into the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The\u00a0Temple of Heracles<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Temple of Heracles<\/strong>\u00a0(Hercules) is the oldest. It housed a bronze statue of the hero Hercules himself, who was particularly venerated by the Akragantines. The temple, destroyed by war and probably by an earthquake, today retains only eight columns of the original 38.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The\u00a0Temple of Aesculapius<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Temple of Aesculapius<\/strong>\u00a0The temple of Aesculapius was built well outside the ancient city walls, a place of pilgrimage for the sick who sought healing. The walls of the temple bore the inscriptions of the sick who were cured.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Tomb of Theron<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The <strong>Tomb of Theron<\/strong>, near the\u00a0<strong>Porta Aurea \u2013 The Golden Gate<\/strong>, is an imposing pyramid-shaped tufa stone monument. It was erected to commemorate those who died in the Second Punic War.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Temple of Vulcan<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Temple of Vulcan<\/strong>, whose ruins suggest an imposing construction, dates back to the 5th century.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The\u00a0Temple of Juno<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Temple of Juno<\/strong>, spectacularly located on the eastern summit of the magical hill, housed the cult of the goddess of fertility. Its name, like that of the nearby Temple of Concord, is conventional, the result of a misinterpretation of a Latin inscription that confuses it with the Temple of Hera in Crotone. The traces of fire, still clearly visible on the walls of the cella, are a reminder of the terrible year 406 BC, when this magnificent temple, almost identical to that of Concordia, was also destroyed by the Carthaginians. Nearby, a large altar for sacrifices (to the east) and a stretch of road deeply furrowed by chariot wheels, coming from Gate III of the city, are still clearly visible.<\/p>\n<p>Follow the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/itinerario\/landscape-and-archaeological-park-of-the-valley-of-the-temples\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Valley of the Temples Archaeological and Landscape Park<\/a>\u00a0itinerary.<\/p>\n<p>Find out more about the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/izi.travel\/it\/b03d-valle-dei-templi-di-agrigento\/it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Valley of the Temples<\/a>\u00a0on izi.TRAVEL! And for young explorers, here is the audio tour of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/izi.travel\/it\/73ff-la-valle-dei-templi-dei-piccoli-guida-per-giovani-esploratori\/it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Valley of the Temples for the little ones<\/a>.<\/p>\n","titolo_paragrafo_1":"Detail","sottotitolo":"The past that dominates the landscape","prezzi":"","orari":"","localizzazione":"<div class=\"leaflet-map\" data-height=\"400\" data-map=\"leaflet\" data-map-lng=\"13.8702393\" data-map-lat=\"37.2827946\" data-map-zoom=\"7\" data-map-layers=\"[&quot;CartoDB.Voyager&quot;]\" data-map-markers=\"[{&quot;label&quot;:&quot;Valle dei templi&quot;,&quot;default_label&quot;:&quot;Viale Luca Crescente, 92100 Agrigento, Sicilia Italia&quot;,&quot;lat&quot;:37.291254899999998,&quot;lng&quot;:13.588975,&quot;uuid&quot;:&quot;marker_680f6d0040f79&quot;}]\"><\/div>\n"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento | Visit Sicily<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In an enchanted valley with flowering almond trees, there stands The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. In this mixture of man-made cultural environment and natural landscape lies all the charm of this UNESCO World Heritage Site.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento | Visit Sicily\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In an enchanted valley with flowering almond trees, there stands The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. In this mixture of man-made cultural environment and natural landscape lies all the charm of this UNESCO World Heritage Site.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Visit Sicily\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/visitsicily.info\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-17T13:09:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Tempio-della-Concordia-in-notturna-ph.-Paolo-Barone.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@VisitSicilyOP\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/\",\"name\":\"The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento | Visit Sicily\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Tempio-della-Concordia-in-notturna-ph.-Paolo-Barone.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-10-12T14:09:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-17T13:09:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"In an enchanted valley with flowering almond trees, there stands The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. In this mixture of man-made cultural environment and natural landscape lies all the charm of this UNESCO World Heritage Site.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Tempio-della-Concordia-in-notturna-ph.-Paolo-Barone.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Tempio-della-Concordia-in-notturna-ph.-Paolo-Barone.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"Il Tempio della Concordia alla Valle dei Templi - ph. Paolo Barone\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Attractions\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Visit Sicily\",\"description\":\"Island of art\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Regione Siciliana\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/regione-siciliana-logo2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/regione-siciliana-logo2.png\",\"width\":200,\"height\":200,\"caption\":\"Regione Siciliana\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/visitsicily.info\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/VisitSicilyOP\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ig_visitsicily\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/visitsicilyOP\/followers\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/siciliaturismo\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento | Visit Sicily","description":"In an enchanted valley with flowering almond trees, there stands The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. In this mixture of man-made cultural environment and natural landscape lies all the charm of this UNESCO World Heritage Site.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento | Visit Sicily","og_description":"In an enchanted valley with flowering almond trees, there stands The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. In this mixture of man-made cultural environment and natural landscape lies all the charm of this UNESCO World Heritage Site.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/","og_site_name":"Visit Sicily","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/visitsicily.info\/","article_modified_time":"2025-11-17T13:09:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Tempio-della-Concordia-in-notturna-ph.-Paolo-Barone.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@VisitSicilyOP","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/","url":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/","name":"The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento | Visit Sicily","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Tempio-della-Concordia-in-notturna-ph.-Paolo-Barone.jpg","datePublished":"2015-10-12T14:09:24+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-17T13:09:22+00:00","description":"In an enchanted valley with flowering almond trees, there stands The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. In this mixture of man-made cultural environment and natural landscape lies all the charm of this UNESCO World Heritage Site.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Tempio-della-Concordia-in-notturna-ph.-Paolo-Barone.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Tempio-della-Concordia-in-notturna-ph.-Paolo-Barone.jpg","width":800,"height":600,"caption":"Il Tempio della Concordia alla Valle dei Templi - ph. Paolo Barone"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/valley-of-the-temples\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Attractions","item":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/attrazione\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/","name":"Visit Sicily","description":"Island of art","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/#organization","name":"Regione Siciliana","url":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/regione-siciliana-logo2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/regione-siciliana-logo2.png","width":200,"height":200,"caption":"Regione Siciliana"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/visitsicily.info\/","https:\/\/x.com\/VisitSicilyOP","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ig_visitsicily\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/visitsicilyOP\/followers\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/siciliaturismo"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attrazione\/3457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attrazione"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/attrazione"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3457"},{"taxonomy":"luogo","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/luogo?post=3457"},{"taxonomy":"stagione","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitsicily.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stagione?post=3457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}