“Discovering a unique site in Europe: the valley of the temples, Unesco heritage”

The park covers about 1300 hectares and is characterized by an exceptional state of conservation. It collects the remains of 10 Doric temples, three sanctuaries, several necropolises and fortifications. Since 1997 it has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The birth of the Agrigento polis is linked to the development of the Gela polis: the city, in fact, was founded in 581 BC. by some inhabitants of Gela, with the name of Akragas, from the homonymous river that bathes the territory. The settlement was protected in the sixth century by a defensive system, consisting of a circuit of walls consisting of a plateau on the side of hills that dominated the coast and of which the “valley of the temples” occupied the southern edge. Akragas’s military expansionism had particular impetus at the time of the tyrant Theron and the victory over the Carthaginians. A period of rivalry with Syracuse followed. The great temples, built in the fifth century, however, testify to the prosperity of the city. After the sacking by the Carthaginians, in 406 BC, there followed a period of decline of the city, which in any case was rebuilt. From 262 BC Agrigento entered the Roman domain, while remaining an important city. Starting from the seventh century, the city became impoverished and depopulated and the urban center was reduced to the only hill of the acropolis, thus abandoning both the urban area and the area of ​​the temples.

Program: 

Pick-up: MASSIMO THEATHER

• 08:00 AM: DEPARTURE FROM PALERMO
• 11:00 AM : ARRIVAL IN THE FAMOUS VALLEY OF THE TEMPLES, TIME FOR LUNCH INCLUDED
• 1:30 PM : DEPARTURE FROM AGRIGENTO
• 2:00 PM : ARRIVAL IN SCALA DEI TURCHI, PHOTO STOP AT THE PANORAMIC POINT
• 2:30 PM: DEPARTURE FROM SCALA DEI TURCHI
• 4:00 PM: BACK TO PALERMO