Selinunte: The Very Last Of The Greek Temples (That We Know Of)

Selinunte was founded by the Greeks, like the others, in the 7th century BCE or so, and became another thriving colony. The Carthaginians took over in the 400s, then the Romans in 250 BCE. Then Selinunte more or less passed from history. Forgotten city. So much so that its seven massive temple remains are not named but merely labeled, A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

Me atop a column base at Temple G, which would have been

one of the largest Dorics ever built; whether toppled by the

Carthaginians or earthquakes, or both and more, it is the

most massive rubble we have seen

Ten foot diameter column parts

Temple E, Doric, 5th century, the best preserved



Another view





Across the valley, remains of Temple C, the oldest of the

lot, 6th century; you can see which way the earthquake rolled



Agora/forum; this place has not been excavated

Another ancient main street

Looking north, the beach and modern town

Simple sarcophagus



Roman wall



Carnevale in Sciacca

We spent the whole evening walking the main street, viewing all the incredible floats, singing and dancing groups, singing and dancing in the streets, street food all over and other vendors. The floats were the largest and most intricate I have ever seen, generally 4-5 stories tall, and laden with religious/moralistic symbolism beyond us. One other thing was striking, and that was that it was a family event, small kids all over the place, all in costume, just as throughout the days before. (We were beginning to conclude that Sicilian little boys just dressed like Batman or a pirate or cowboy all the time...). We dined at a pizzaria, watching all the excitement process by, then dove back into it. By ten or so we were tired enough to hike back down the hill to the camper stop. But we were back up at 2:30AM to watch the concluding fireworks. These people really know how to party. Check it out at http://www.carnevaledisciacca.it/

Wardrobe malfunction

Huh?

2:30 in the AM, seriously, and only then did the din subside

Sciacca the next morning; probably everyone slept in...

Sciacca

From Agrigento we drove on, further west, generally close to the coast, to the town of Sciacca. Sciacca is not on the major tourist destination lists, but it was listed as having a "camper stop," that is, a designated parking area for motorhomes, something we have seen rather little of in recent months. We had only GPS coordinates. Getting into town we found a relative hurricane of activity, police, detours, monstrous traffic, all kinds of pedestrians all over, and were hustled down little winding alleys to the port area. It's evidently a major fishing town with a big port. Anyhow, after a little pedestrian reconnaissance of our own and discussion with some other campers, we found our way to a huge parking area with 30 or more motorhomes already set up. Nice, we thought. We'll stay here. But by this time it was also apparent that all the hubbub was about Sciacca's Carnevale--one of Sicily's two largest such events--Mardi Gras, as we Americans know it. Vicki especially enjoys folk happenings, and we spent the whole evening absorbing this rather incredible event.

Happpily camped, by the great sea wall, Sciacca in the

background

Looking across the marina toward sunset

Vicki on the grand staircase from the port up

to the town center

Looking back at our camp site...and anything but a quiet

evening ahead...

Valley of Temples, Agrigento

The Greek diaspora/colonization continued on around the south of Sicily to Akragas (a bay of crabs; founded, according to legend, by Daedalus) and there the great Valley of Temples, another Greek city rivalling Athens. "Valley" is a misnomer, since it's all on a low ridge beneath the modern city.

We parked for the night in the parking lot of the Valley of

Temples, in the the olive and almond groves beneath the

Temple of Juno

Next morning, the hill-side town of Agrigento

The Valley is adorned--tastefully, we thought--in more-than-

life-size sculpture of classical subjects

The Temple of Juno; all these temples are 5th or 6th century

BCE

In the grove, new almond buds

Still hanging in there, last year's almond

More of the sculpture--"Ikarea"--with wings;

"Ikaro" did not have wings...

Temple of Concord



Temple of Concord; if you want to see the glory that was

Greece, as the archaeologists told us, go to Turkey; or to

Sicily, we say





Temple of Heracles, oldest of the lot, late 6th century



Vicki by a base, for scale

Looking back at the Temple of Concord

And the Temple of Juno...all of it an incredible place...yet

another UNESCO World Heritage Site







Villa Romana del Casale--Not

So from Siracusa we backtracked a bit--Vicki's phobia of squiggly roads on the map--getting eventually to Piazza Amerina and finally to the Villa Romana del Casale, said to be home of the finest Roman mosaics ever. (How many times have we heard that?) Anyhow, arriving at the Villa, a little man in a little Fiat informed us the Villa was closed until March 19. This being March 7 or so, we decided to head on, through more of the beautiful Sicilian countryside of groves of olives, lemons, oranges, cacti, even artichokes, and more, to Agrigento. Pity. I really wanted to see those mosaics of Roman girls in bikinis.

Oh well...

Best Doric/Baroque Temple/Duomo So Far

Although Ortigia is nice enough in itself, our real goal was to see its Duomo, a Baroque cathedral built right on top of and unabashedly incorporating the foundations and columns of a 5th century BCE Doric Temple of Athena. It was pretty incredible.

North side of the building, note the inset Doric column, then

note the 10 or 12 more capitals along the top of the stone



Entrance and facade; pretty Baroque



Column hugger; inside, the massive 2500

year old columns are pretty conspicuous and
are still holding the thing up; one sees
religious buildings built over others all over
the more contested parts of Europe--the few
Roman temples that have survived in Rome
have done so because, like this Duomo, they
were "converted" to Christian use; but there
is nothing else of this age, intactness, and
continuing function



E.g.

Back to the Baroque

Doric columns at the head of what was the

cella



More columns

Looking off into one of the Baroque side

chapels

Ceiling of another

Play of light on the porch

Bonus: right down the Duomo Square, which

is significant for other architectural reasons,

is the Church of Santa Lucia (patron saint of

Sircusa), in which resides a moderately

famous Caravaggio, namely, his Santa Lucia,

which he painted while on the lam between

his flight from Malta and return to Italy 

The Church has a no pix policy, and while the

guard was enforcing this with a group of

college-age tourists, I snapped what is truly a

Parthian Shot as I was walking out the door;

evidently, this is not one of the paintings on

which Caravaggio's reputation stands, being

largely a butt-shot of one of the grave

diggers...