Daily Updates
Week Five: 21 October
21 October. Jackie Reporting:
Today, we remained in Agrigento and visited both the museum and the Valley of the Temples. At the museum, we saw a number of fantastic pieces, both in stone and in pottery. Most famous is the Telemon that stands in their main room, and at over 7 meters high, it appears to be holding up the high ceiling. It came from the ruins of the gigantic Temple to Olympian Zeus, the largest Doric Greek temple in the Mediterranean. Near the statue we also saw an exquisite Severe Style kouros from 480 BC in marble that stood a little over a meter high. The museum also featured a beautiful Attic red figure, volute crater by the Niobid Painter showing an amazonomachy. Remarkably, this find from a tomb was completely intact without any cracks. After the museum we headed to the "Valley of the Temples" to see the remains of four great temples. Most of these great temples were built after the victory over the Carthaginians in 480 BC; victorious Greek cities like Agrigento gained both wealth and slaves, which enabled them to build great temples. The first was the hexistyle Temple to Hera from 450 BC. Next, we stopped by the Temple of Concord, one of the best-preserved Doric temples in the world. Built a little later than the Temple to Hera, as evidence by the wider spacing between its columns and their steeper capitals, this temple of the 430's was later converted into a church and thus remains intact up to through its pediment. Like the Temple to Hera, the Temple to Concord is also hexistyle with 13 columns running along the sides. The next temple, the Temple to Heracles, dated to the late Archaic and was slightly longer with a 6x17 peripteral colonnade. Finally, we saw the remains of the never-finished Temple to Olympian Zeus, whose construction was not completed by the time of the second Carthaginian attack in 409 (this time Carthage succeeded). A Telemon, most likely a copy of the one in the museum, still lies on the foundations, and among the rubble of the temple, we saw enormous capitols and other remains. Remains of cisterns, including one inside the temple, can also be found in the site. Even though it was never completed, it obviously held great significance for the city. Before leaving the Valley of the Temples, we stopped inside the Kolymbetron Gardens, a botanical garden created from a drained lake. Inside we saw banana, orange, lime, lemon, olive, and pomegranate trees. We even ate a few fresh almonds out by the desolate remains of the Temple to Vulcan outside the gardens. Though it was a full day, we had a great time.
Model of the Temple to Olympian Zeus made in cork from the Agrigento Museum
Professor Ulrich and Clare standing next to the gigantic Telemon from the temple site.
Brian posing in front of one of the recovered Telemon faces.
Everyone listening to Professor Ulrich explain the plan of the Temple to Olympian Zeus.
Julie with local flora.
A view of the inner, North side of the temple from the East.
Everyone studies the Telemon resting inside the temple
Elizabeth standing on a huge triglyph from the Temple to Olympian Zeus.
Kelsey, Briar, Craig and James presenting the Archaic Temple to Herakles.
Julie posing in front of a column drum from the Temple to Herakles.
The west (back) facade of the Temple to Concord.
Everyone walking through the Kolymbetron Gardens.
Looking for almonds.
Johnny.
Kelsey.
Briar looks for almonds high in the tree.
A view from the gardens.
The evening sun on the temple columns.
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