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Once a city-state in its own right, Sicily is the largest island hosted by the Mediterranean Sea. It sums up nine provinces that offer proper agricultural and touristic conditions to 5, 1 millions of inhabitants. Along with eastern Mount Etna, the only volcano on mainland Sicily (and the tallest in Europe), the notorious organized crime mobs take up much of Sicily’s notoriety. Still, there is also the extraordinary agriculture that Sicilians devotedly practice, mainly because individual income is not the satisfactory kind. Crops, olive and wine production create an environment that acutely appeals to urban potential tourists who help increasing Sicily’s economy a bit more by choosing this island as a vacation destination.

The amazement of these lacustrine-dwellings resides in all its inwardness: arts, cuisine, agriculture, architecture, language, and last but not least history. The uniqueness of the historic sites of Sicily places this part of the world on a hot spot of European history.
Agrigento, a city on the southern coast of Sicily and also capital of the province of Agrigento, proudly presents a historic legacy that entitles this region to be acknowledged as a host for the best-preserved ancient Greek buildings, outside Greece. This success obviously pulled in the recognition of the UNESCO World Heritage that listed historic buildings in Agrigento as World Heritage sites. The importance of these ancient constructions is not a scarce resource. It has made a long term subject to quarries on components usage that have accompanied earthquakes effects as culprits in the destruction of many of the Greek temples.

The best preserved is a building that honours goddess Concordia. Its perfect preservation is rather amazing, still justified by Christianity. In 597 CE, the temple was converted into a Christian church, which created proper parameters for the construction to be well preserved over hundreds of years.

Not all temples managed to display resistance to passing time. Built during the 6th and the 5th centuries BCE, these Doric temples have become subject to multiple quarries, and the forces of nature didn’t help too much. Earthquakes have notably fragmented the buildings, nevertheless leaving behind enough evidence to be studied upon.

The largest of all is the Temple of Olympian Zeus, built in 480 BCE. Both the largest and incomplete, its remnants have become substantial silent actors of the 18th century quarrels. The anthropic factor has proven itself to be a powerful force that yet has helped the disappearance of vital evidence of the ancient Greek civilization

Other gods and goddesses that are eponymous of Agrigento’s historic legacy are Hephaestus, Heracles, Asclepius, Demeter and Persephone (Castor and Pollux) and Hera Lacinia.

This ancient Akragas covers a very large area, of which not all has been excavated. Its history is both complex and visible, due to the famous Valle dei Templi and other ancient Greek constructions. The Valley consistently remains one of the most extraordinary evidence of Greek civilization in Sicily.