Just a quick update from Agrigento on Sicily’s southern coast. I originally planned on visiting Selinunte as part of my stay here, but since the buses are uncooperative and since I ended up seeing it from Palermo in my one day rental car, I found myself with some extra time. So I visited the ancient city of Akragas, also known as The Valley of the Temples, and the only other thing I had planned, at a much more relaxed pace.

Akragas was founded in the 6th century BC by Greek colonists. It was briefly a wealthy city, but was burned and destroyed by the Carthiginians in the late 5th century BC. I don’t know all the the details, but it was related to the feud between Segesta and Selinunte that I mentioned in my last post. Those trouble makers!

Today, the so called Valley of the Temples, is just a really cool archeological site. The most intact temple on the site, Tempio della Concordia, was apparently the model for Unesco’s logo.

There’s not much left of the other temples, but they’re still really cool to see up close.

Included in my ticket was a visit to the Museo Archeologico where a lot of the artifacts from the site are displayed. I found a 6th century BC representation of the Triscele, the three legged logo from the Sicilian flag. I also found out the head in the middle is Medusa. Cool!

And that’s it! That’s the update. Maybe one of the shortest updates I’ve ever done. I have one more stop in Sicily, then I’ll be heading back to mainland Italy after that. More to come…