Monday, July 28, 2014

Blaine, Lindsay, and Agrigento

Blaine and Lindsay came to see us!!  We absolutely LOVED having them here.  We went to see some new places during their visit.  Agrigento was the first on our short list.  We went to the Valley of the Temples and the Turkish Steps.  It was only about 2 hours away and was a day full of fun!  Here's a little history from thethinkingtraveller.com:

One of Sicily’s most famous historical attractions is without a doubt the Valley of the Temples, just outside Agrigento. 

This splendid archaeological park consists of eight temples (and various other remains) built between about 510 BC and 430 BC: the Temple of Hera, the Temple of Concordia, the Temple of Heracles, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Temple of Hephaestos, the Temple of Demeter, and the Temple of Asclepius (the God of Medicine). Apart from this latter, which is to be found on the banks of the Akragas river, all are situated in the same area on rocky crests south of modern day Agrigento (not really in a Valley at all!).


These ruins are amazing!!  Definitely the most impressive that we seen so far, in my humble opinion.  







There was a little bit of hiking involved and it was a hot day, so my sweet Jason took one for the team and ran back to the van and pick us up at the end of the site.  We love him!!


Next stop, The Turkish Steps, or as the Italians say, Scala die Turchi.  Here's some info on that, too:
The Scala is formed by marl, a sedimentary rock with a characteristic white color. It lies between two sandy beaches, and is accessed through a limestone rock formation in the shape of a staircase, whence the name. The latter part of the name derives from the frequent raids carried on by Turks.




After climbing the steps we made our way over to the sand for a couple hours of beach time.


1 comment:

Aimee said...

So much amazing history! Those are some fantastic pics!