Memorial Day Weekend Part 2: Valley of the Temples in Agrigento

I will try to keep the writing down to a minimum for this set of pictures. But to explain a little before the barrage of pictures... Agrigento was built during the height of the Golden age of Greece around 600 BC. The Greeks called it Akragas and it was built to keep an eye on Carthage. Their temples rivaled those in Greece. But because Sicily has no marble, they were made from sandstone and plastered white to resemble the home temples of Greece. The Greeks also brought olive trees to landscape the grounds and to make them feel more like home. The olive trees still stand outside some of the temples.

There are considerable remains of six so called temples... one of which is a compilation of ruins into a single imagined structure.

First is the temple of Juno, originally dedicated to Hera, built in the mid 5th century BC.

It is high atop the hill and looks down over the vast Mediterranean Sea.

It looks down over the rest of the temples as well.

This is the view of the Temple of Juno after climbing up the big hill.

And to prove that we were really there...

Aidan and I with a backdrop of the Mediterranean.

Some more of the valley down to the sea.

Aidan wanted to go and see the inside of the temple...

But she settled with standing on this rock instead.

This is the oldest olive tree on the grounds... brought when the temples were built.

Aidan was reluctant to sit still for the pictures.

These are some very young olive trees, in front of the false restoration of a temple. It is referred to as the Temple of Castor and Pollux.

This is how small the olives start...

And they grow into this.

Here is more of the Temple of Castor and Pollux... these were rooms of rest to get out of the sun.

Jason and Aidan sitting in one of the niches.

More of a view of the Mediterranean and the landscape of the valleys.

Jason and Aidan walking down the hill to see the next temple.

More of the niches.

Jason in front of the niches.

Me in front of the niches.

Some brick columns put in to hold up the remaining structure.

I have no idea what kind of plant this was, but they very abundant in the park.

Another view from the temples to the sea.

This is the Temple of Concordia, dating back to 450-440 BC. The name "Concordia" came from a Roman inscription, the name of the divinity it was dedicated to is unknown.

Massive columns in three or four rows... this was the best preserved of the temples.

Me in front of the temple.

Here is a side view of Concordia.

And a better angle showing the size of the whole temple.

Here is Aidan hiding in her canopied stroller.

This is a view of the present day town of Agrigento.

Aidan peaking out of the canopy for a nice smiley picture.

These are the remains of a necropolis... not to be confused with acropolis.

The Greeks would bury their dead outside the city walls and down the hill. The bodies were placed in the fetal position in their graves as a sign of readiness to come back into the world.

This is a house built in the park by a wealthy benefactor. He was sick with a respiratory disease and found the air in Agrigento to help with his breathing. He paid to maintain the grounds for the rest of his life.

Here is a view of the front of his house.

This is the Temple of Hercules, or Heracles for the Greeks, built around 510 BC. The temple's columns were reerected in 1928. The temple was archaic with a long column count of six by fifteen.

Here I am next to one of the segments of a column.

Me doing a courageous feat of my own, climbing up this rock for a heroic pose... Jason missed the pic.

Jason and Aidan on the ruins of Hercules.

More pictures of them... Have to get them in before Aidan has a breakdown.

The tour group was all huddled at this temple. It was hard to get a picture without someones head in the shot.

This is at the entrance to the Temple of Zeus, the Roman equivalent is Jupiter, built in 480 BC to celebrate victory over Carthage at the Battle of Himera. An Earthquake destroyed it before it was complete.

Here are the steps leading up to the temple.

The superstructure was supported by "telamons," or Atlas type figures. This is one of those figures... If you look at it from the other direction, you can see the legs and arms of the figure. This is a view of its shoulders amd head.

After the earthquake destroyed the temple, it was turned into a quarry. These are piles of the rocks that made up the temple.

By the time we got to the Temple of Zeus, Aidan had that mealt down and Jason had to go on and take pictures without us. We never made it to the Temple of Hephaistos, or Vulcan to the Romans. Also, further down on the river of Akragas, a temple dedicated to Asklepius, or Eusculapius to the Romans, stand near a medical spring.

And lastly, this is a picture of an old building... and when I say old, the Sicilians mean over fifty years old. They close down these buildings and have them turned into agriturismos. This one will be converted into a hotel/agriturismo. We saw this while riding the bus back to base after the two tours.

I hope you enjoyed our pictures even though there is a tedious amount of them. We just want to share our experience with you all. Until next time... Ciao.

Memorial Day Weekend Part 1: Festa di Santa Croce in Casteltermini

For Memorial Day weekend, since Jason had the whole four days off, we decided to take advantage of the break and take our first ITT tour from the base. To our knowledge, we were only going to see the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, but to our surprise, we got to do two trips in one. There was a town close to Agrigento that was having a catholic/historic festival that same day. Because I am documenting our time here in Italy through pictures on this blog, there will be alot to go through. I split the trip up into two posts... one for each stop. This is the smaller of the two.

The festival we went to was the festa di Santa Croce and the Sagra Del Tatarata in Casteltermini. The festival is to celebrate a cross that was found in the 17th century. Recently the cross was carbon dated by an institute in Pisa and the construction of the cross dates back to the 1st century A.D. The town celebrates by dressing up in period costumes and parading a replica of the cross through the town, visiting the actual cross in the small church were it is housed, and watching the dancers of the Tatarata. The Tatarata is from traditional Arab style that comes from the folklore of Sicily.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

This is Aidan on the bus... It was a long ride and she was in anticipation of seeing the temples from the time we left the base at 7am.

Aidan and Jason walking up to the small church on the top of the mountain in Casteltermini.

A tile mural for Santa Croce (these tile murals are very common throughout Sicily).

This is the actual cross, housed in the church.

These are the doors to the church... I thought they were very interesting.

Here is a view from the side of the church.

Aidan was having fun picking up the leaves from the ground and sticking her tongue out at us.

Here is the church... and some of our tour group.

Each town has a monument in the city-center. This one had wreaths in honor of the festival.

Aidan and I waiting for the parade to start. The bleachers were metal and extremely hot... It was over 90 degrees. Luckily I am the planner I am and made a canopy out of an old sheet to hang over the stroller to keep Aidan cool, filled our Camelbaks with ice and water, brought copious amounts of sunscreen, and several changes of clothes. (I might have overdone it.)

Aidan really liked the idea of drinking water through the tube from a backpack.

This is one view from the Piazza Duomo (church square), this is the campanile (belltower).

We picked up sodas at a bar so that we could use their bathroom. Aidan decided she wanted the soda instead of the water. Jason was busy watching the hoards of people filing out of mass.

Aidan getting ready for the parade to start...

Now I don't know for sure, but I think the processionals are paid for by town contributors... This is one of the families with their shrine to the cross... the head of the family reminded me of a movie mafioso with his dark glasses and shiny suit surrounded by his family.

This is the beginning of the Tatarata's dance.

The dance of the Tatarata.

The processional of royalty. (The festival used to be class segregated.)

Il Duomo (the cathedral).

This was another monument in the town... The grouping was interesting, and the face of the screaming man at the bottom.

And that was the end of our visit to Casteltermini and the festa di Santa Croce. Stay tuned for the next installment of Memorial Day photos... It takes me forever to upload them because of our slow internet on base. Until then... Ciao.