Agrigento
Discover Agrigento
A concise introduction to Agrigento, its geography, history and culture.
Introduction
Agrigento sits on a ridge about three kilometres inland from Sicily's south coast, with the remains of the ancient city on the lower ground between it and the sea.
That lower ground is the Valley of the Temples — not a valley at all but a long ridge of its own, carrying eight Doric temples along its crest and inscribed by UNESCO in 1997. The Temple of Concordia still stands nearly complete. The Temple of Olympian Zeus, never finished and long since collapsed, was the largest Doric temple ever attempted.
The modern town on the hill above is where the medieval city retreated to, and has a cathedral, a steep main street and around 55,000 people. The regional archaeological museum between the two holds the finds, including one of the giant stone figures that stood inside the Olympieion.