Valley Of Temples, 2018

We drove on to Agrigento, on Sicily's southern coast, to visit the Valley of Temples. If you're into Doric temples--and why aren't you?!--Sicily is your main place. Between Selinunte and the Valley of the Temples, and even Segesta, and some other places, there are more Doric temples on Sicily than anywhere else, perhaps more than all others combined. The Greek colonies on Sicily are so old, antedating all of classical Greece...Doric is all they knew. Nothing of the new-fangled Ionic and Corinthian orders. But I digress. And speculate. (Maybe they just really liked Doric.) Anyhow, we visited the Valley of Temples in 2011 and were predictably KO'd, and thus we were not going to miss it on our 2018 tour of the island. Somehow we couldn't find the free over-night parking on site that we had enjoyed in 2011, but we nonetheless discovered that the parking lot of the archaeological park's museum is a sosta, 6E for staying overnight. A much longer walk to the temples than in 2011, but still just fine. And pretty quiet, too. Did I mention that the Valley of Temples is the world's largest archaeological park and also another of Italy's many World Heritage Sites?

As in 2011, parked in an almond grove

From the museum, the Temple of Concordia

The museum is set in the middle of the ancient city; here, a public meeting
place, the Bouleuterion

Have I mentioned that everything in Sicily is in fierce bloom? The oleanders,
the bouganvillea, the jackaranda, the poppies, especially the big cacti, and others 
all are a sight to see

As at Selinunte, the temples here are so remotely old that no one really knows
what or whom they were temples to; but unlike Selinunte, scholars here have
made conjectures...this, I think, is called the Temple of Castor and Pollux; the
marketing symbol of Agrigento (in the background)

A fluted Doric capital at the Temple of Zeus; this chunk about the size of a
compact car

Among the most interesting things at the Valley of Temples are the fallen
telamon; telamon is the Latin term for the Greek Atlantes (male) or Caryatid
(female), that is, a human-shaped column or pier; those at the Temple of
Zeus, here, are the oldest known

And they are monumental in size, 30-some feet; the Caryatids on the Acropolis
are better known, of course

Little remains of the Temple of Zeus, but it was one of the largest ever built;
Goethe visited in the early 19th century and wrote that each flute in one of
its columns could fully accommodate a man...it would take 22 men [sic],
shoulder to shoulder, to encircle one of these puppies

Remains of the Temple of Hercules

Interpretive signage all over

Approaching the Biggie, the so-called Temple of Concordia

I propose it should be called the Temple of Twosomes...according to some
theories, it was a temple first of Castor and Pollux, then of Eber and Raps
(Punic), and then Peter and Paul (after Eber and Raps had been exorcised,
of course)

The Concordia olive tree; very old; not that old

Looking from Concordia, I mean, The Temple of Twosomes, to the sea, a mile
or two away

A temple too far, Juno; it was hot, we were tired and templed-out; and I and
Google Maps had found a path through the olive and almond groves that
seemed to lead directly back to the museum and Le Duc

In the orchards, some enormous yucca plant-like specimens, 25 feet tall

The path indeed led directly back to the museum; only, as it turned out, it was
on private property, and blocked by this imposing, locked gate; on the right
side there was a bit of an opening, however, the chain-link fencing cut down to
a mere 3 feet or so above the stone wall; somehow, despite the dizziness, I scaled
this and crossed over

And here is Vicki, surveying the situation, commenting on
my path-finding skills and her distrust of Google Maps

And climbing over, artificial knee and all; it's amazing what
70-year-old bodies can do;  the alternative was another couple
miles, backtracking in the hot dry Sicilian sun

Selinunte, 2018

We visited Selinunte in 2011 and were sufficiently impressed to want to return. In size, it certainly rivals the Valley of Temples, near Agrigento, although Selinunte's seven Doric temples are, with one exception, pretty much ruins. I posted about Selinunte in 2011, and there are some decent pix there too. Selinunte was yet another 7th century Greek colony on Sicily, later taken over by the Carthagenians and then the Romans. Selinunte's temples are so remote, historically, their names or associations have been lost. They are simply Temple A, Temple B, Temple C, etc.

Temple E has been reconstructed, in part, and therefore receives the most
attention

Nave view, as it were

Looking toward Temple C, on the sea, across the ruins of the city

Cella of Temple E

Ruins of Temple F

Excellent interpretative signage all over; and in English too

Scale

At Temple F

Ditto

Today's profundity, courtesy of J-P Sartre: (roughly) "the silence of Selinunte's
temples speaks more than many words"

The quarry was some 10-12km away; they cut out the column drums, then rolled
them to the site and erected them; then cut the flutes and other ornamentation

Contemporary beach adjoining Temple C and friends

Interesting shade tree

Earthquakes are really tough on temples: sometimes you can see exactly how
the earth rolled...

Temple C, again; where the metopes in Palermo would have been

And a last look at Temple E

We spent the next two nights at a campground on the beach, just a few kilometers
from the ruins

Thus

And thus

The Temple At Segesta

We continued driving along the west of Sicily, stopping to spend the night at a free sosta in the small town of Calatafimi. Our aim was to visit the temple at Segesta the next morning. Segesta and Selinunte were both Greek colonies in the 6th and 5th centuries, BC, and were often at war with one another. Matters did not change much when Selinunte allied itself with Carthage and Segesta with Greece. Both pretty much petered out in Classical times. In the Wars of Tourism in the 21st century, AD, Selinunte is definitely winning out. Segesta is a medium-sized Doric, unfinished, for which the locals want 6E each for admission, plus 7E to park down the hill (despite a perfectly serviceable car-park, now apparently reserved for turbusses) and to take a shuttle bus. We settled for a few distant pix and headed on to Selinunte.

A patent rip-off

Not one of the biggies

Nor finished

Uninteresting surroundings

On to Selinunte

Erice

The Medieval mountain-top village of Erice was not among our more successful visits. Granted, we got there, but we did not stay very long, finding ourselves on a one-way alley through a labyrinth whose end was very uncertain. Especially in an RV. We should have parked at the RV/bus lot and walked the kilometer up-hill. But we thought there was a higher car-park we could find, and by the time we had passed it, if it exists, we were committed. We stopped at the top, by the castle ruins, I reconned on foot, and we boldly headed back down, every twist and turn a drama. The exit through the gate in the old wall was a special thrill. When will we learn?!

But first, heading out of Palermo, we stopped at the Auchan at the beautiful
Poseidon shopping center

Right on the sea: Spain out there, hundreds of miles...

Auchan's pretty much our favorite French supermercado

View from the top of Erice

Two towers

Castello

Looking north back toward Palermo

Clouds rolling in

Somehow, Vicki directing traffic, we got through the gate;
disbelieving onlookers

Erice from below

Chiesa Di San Cataldo

The other 12th century century church, a former royal chapel originally, is the Chiesa di San Cataldo. It was the chapel of a castle, now gone, then a property of the Benedictines, then a royal post office; more recently it is of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. And, most importantly, it is Palermo's artistic/cultural symbol, the city's emblem. It is defiantly sparse, more dramatically so.

Sparse 

A little background

A marvel of understatement