The Rise and Fall of Akragas: Valley of the Temples Audio Tour

Agrigento's Valley of the Temples is one of the ancient world's most remarkable surviving landscapes. On this walking tour, you'll trace the rise and fall of Akragas, a city so powerful it once rivaled Athens, through nine temples still standing on the same ridge where Greek colonists built them 2,500 years ago.

The tour starts at the park entrance and follows the Sacred Way westward past almond groves and olive trees. You'll hear how Akragas grew from a small Greek colony founded around 580 BC into one of the wealthiest cities in the Mediterranean, how the Carthaginians nearly destroyed it in 406 BC, and how the Romans later rebuilt it. Along the way, you'll pass the early Christian necropolis carved into the ridge, and Villa Aurea, the estate of the English captain who financed 20th-century excavations here.

You'll learn why the Temple of Concordia survived virtually intact when others were dismantled for building materials – a bishop converted it into a church in 597 AD – and discover that its original gleaming white stucco blazed with blue and red painted detail. You'll also stand before the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, designed to be the largest Doric temple ever built, and see the recently re-erected Telamon, one of the colossal 8-metre stone figures that once supported it. The tour ends beside this giant at the Olympieion, offering a final sense of the staggering ambition that once defined this city.

On this 90-minute tour, you'll have a chance to:

• Examine scorch marks on the Temple of Hera Lacinia, left by Carthaginian forces in 406 BC
• Spot fossilised shells embedded in the 2-million-year-old stone blocks of the Temple of Concordia
• Explore the optional Kolymbethra Garden, a restored 5-hectare citrus orchard fed by Greek-era underground aqueducts
• Discover how the Temple of the Dioscuri's iconic four columns are actually a Romantic-era reconstruction
• Visit the sanctuary of the chthonic deities, where circular and square altars hint at rituals tied to fertility and the underworld
• Learn how Goethe visited this valley in 1787 and called it a splendid vision

Please note that entrance to the Valley of the Temples archaeological park is not included in the price of this audio tour. The standard entrance ticket costs €14 per person. Reduced tickets cost €7 and are available for visitors aged between 18 and 25. Admission is free for minors. Entrance is also free for everyone on the first Sunday of each month.

The Valley of the Temples rewards slow walkers, and this tour gives you the stories to match every stone you pass.