Agrigento - Going from Highlight to Highlight 1-15-16

We awoke in Agrigento this morning and had a nice if limited breakfast at our B&B, mostly pastry type items and some toast, and of course coffee and tea.  I've been drinking coffee in the morning since this is Italy, when in Rome, etc.  Of course I have capuchino and not the little bullets that most Italians seem to drink.  It was a pretty morning and so we made our way down to the parking for the valley of the temples.  First thing to know, it's not a valley but more a mesa or plateau upon which the original inhabitants chose to build.

Dioscuri Temple

The valley of the temples has the ruins of seven temples within an area of about a half-mile square, we were able to see the five which are contiguous. The Greek temples are situated along a bit of a ridge at one side of a mesa, while the Roman temples are kind of sporadically spaced across the mesa.  At the end of the mesa are the oldest ruins from around 600 BC while the majority the more complete temples are around 400 BC.  Many of the temples were incorrectly attributed to the wrong deities and now they can definitively identify only 2 of the Greek temples and 1 Roman temple.  No matter, as what they have is truly impressive,  the temples of  Hercules, Juno, and Concordia are largely standing as far as pillars and some internal structure are concerned.

Jupiter Temple base corner

The temple of Jupiter is mostly a field of fallen stone but it was so large that the area seems to be a couple acres at least.  In a reconstructed drawing of the temple it showed "Telemons" which were sculptures of

Telemone

warriors who were captured and subsequently enslaved.  Each one was about 15 feet tall and they were less than a third of the size of the columns.  It was one of the largest known in the Greek world at the time.

Concordia Temple with Icarus

The temple of Concordia, was named after a peace agreement that was signed after a large battle between the victorious inhabitants of the city and the defeated Carthaginians.  They now state that it is not dedicated to Concordia after all but they don't know just who.  Same thing with the temple of Juno, it's not to her but they're not sure to whom it was dedicated.
Most of the preservation is the result of a Brit, Alexander Hardcastle, who visited the area in the early 20th century and was so smitten that he settled amongst the ruins and built a house.  He then spent the rest of his life and much of his money financing the restoration of he temples.  Finally the Italian government recognized the value and has taken over the site and funds the ongoing restoration.  This is no small task as the stone from which

Hercules Temple

 the temples are built is a really soft sandstone chocked through with sea shells.  It weathers horribly and much of the stone is riddled with erosion caused pockmarks and cavities.  Many of the columns are stabilized with new material to give them rigidity and structure.  Many of the pieces laying on the ground are supported with brick foundations, keeping this area stabilized must be enormously expensive.

Juno Temple

As we were driving over yesterday Deb mentioned that the valley was famous for the almond trees that go into bloom in February and March, and we were thinking how fun it would be to see them, but alas we were too early.  Well today we got lucky and there were a few trees in early bloom so we happily surprised.  The blooms are very fragrant and quite beautiful.  But not only almonds, there were blooming wildflowers all over the area.
We also saw a species of goat that is indigenous to the area that has the most incredible horns.  They look like corkscrews instead of curved daggers.
We spent over 3 hours just wandering around the area and being enthralled with a sense of the history of the area.