Valley of the Temples

Alessandro, our super-friendly bus driver extraordinaire, impressed us all by making the crazy tight turns through the twisty narrow streets of Agrigento, to get to the spectacular Valley of Temples.

This was a favorite stop for so many reasons:

Impressive Greek temples (plural!!!) and ruins, gleaming golden in the sun.
Museum full of remarkable finds, including the gigantic 26-foot tall "Telamon".
Picturesque hotel with an attractive courtyard, lush gardens in the back, located in a quiet rural area but with a view of the temples in the distance -- all lit up at night.
Fantastic group dinner in San Leone (on the coast). We don't like eggplant, but we gobbled up their sweet and sour eggplant. (Italian sweet and sour is different from Asian sweet and sour.) And the swordfish on top of potatoes was buonissimo.

Our favorite group photo, which includes our guide Stephanie, kindly taken by our local guide Michele.

Zoomed in view of a temple at night, from the gardens behind our hotel. Can you imagine living nearby and seeing this every day? OMG!

Not our first Greek temple, but our smiles are still just as big as they were at Segesta. This tour was making our dreams come true!

After touring the great museum, we all headed to lunch together. We were both a bit tired of pasta and pizza by this time, so we salivated at the salad, green beans and potatoes.

Then it was onto the bus so we could start uphill at the Temple of Juno and walk downhill to the others. That's good tour planning! This place was huge. Yes, we walked to that temple waaaayyy on the top left of the photo above. Comfy shoes to the rescue! We were all pleasantly surprised that, for such a sunny Saturday, it was not crowded. Again, benefit of coming during the off-season.

We could imagine what it was like in ancient times ... a busy town that was inhabited from the temples on the ridge all the way down to the coast, with crowds of people coming to worship at one of the temples. And on special days, when it was time to sacrifice an oxen or whatever and grill it up, it must have been like a tailgating party at a football game (a little for the god, a little for me, a little for everybody else). Except, of course, everyone was wearing robes and sandals.

Nerdiness Time!

Besides multi-tasking by taking group photos with tour members' cameras, our local guide Michele explained that inside each temple was a statue of that temple's god or goddess. Only the priest of a temple was allowed inside it. Outside, an "altar" ran across the front of the temple. That large space was where everyone made their offerings and had their tailgating, um, we mean sacrificial events.

Ah-ha, the secret "peg holes" in each section of column from the fallen ruins of the Temple of Hercules (6th century B.C.). In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Valley of Temples was a stopover during the European Grand Tour. It was certainly a favorite of our Sicilian Grand Tour!

We learned to "expect the unexpected" here. Centuries after the Greek civilization collapsed, local Christians made tombs in the old city's perimeter wall and in the natural rock that spanned between the temples.

A Few Favorites From Inside the Museum

Incredible that this mold has survived thousands of years.

Rare white pottery, depicting Perseus, slayer of Medusa and wearer of snazzy winged sandals.

Bareback female bullrider. You go, girl!

Not all vessels were highly decorated. Just look at those two functional handles for easy pouring!

Benches that had been inside a gymnasium, inscribed with the names of sponsors or patrons. Just like at today's sporting events.

Love the

mane on this lion.

Hercules and Iolaus battling the fearsome multi-headed Hydra.

This mule askos (oil holder) was excavated from the 5th century B.C. tomb of a child.

Stately sarcophagus.

The museum has a tremendous number of artifacts on display. Local guide Michele helped us quickly learn about the most significant and rare findings from this area's archaeological digs.

Metal shackles.

Telamon -- Huge Statues From the Temple of Zeus

When we first saw this statue in the museum, we audibly gasped. It towers over the room. There were about 40 of these statues in the temple. Scholars now believe these 2,500-year old statues were decorative elements, located in the openings between the columns. See all the statues in the small model in the photo? Wow, right?! That temple was humongous.

Take 90 stone pieces like these ...

Add a large stone head (each one unique, most likely representing various conquered civilizations) ...

And you get this 26-ft tall statue.

Our Charming Hotel

We enjoyed all the hotels we stayed in during this tour. But the Baglio della Luna, located in a bucolic, quiet area south of the Valley of Temples, has large gardens that deserve special recognition. They were so nice, we strolled around before and after dinner, soaking up the tranquility. We also lucked out and had a view of the temples from our room. We couldn't resist leaning out of our window, just like we saw people do in Palermo and Trapani ... and later on in Siracusa and Taormina!