Located along the southern coast of Sicily, outside of the city of Agrigento, the Valley of the Temples is not a valley at all!  The archaeological and landscape park is located on a ridge overlooking the city.

Extending over 1300 hectares, this UNESCO World Heritage Site includes ruins of the ancient city of Akragas and its surrounding territory.  One of Sicily’s main attractions, the park is the largest archaeological park in Europe and the Mediterranean basin and receives about one million visitors each year.

The Valley includes the remains of seven temples that date back to the 5^th century BC.  The Temple of Concordia is the best preserved and was the highlight of our guided walking tour through the park.

(For all photos, click on the image for a full screen view.)

Surrounding the temples were beautiful century-old olive trees:

Following our visit to the valley, our lunch, which was originally listed as being “at a local restaurant in Agrigento” turned out to be a wonderful surprise!  We were brought instead to the home of Marcello and Rita who grew the vegetables used in the delicious multi-course home-cooked lunch for us.

After lunch, we were led downstairs to a workshop to see a beautiful collection of “carretti,” Sicilian horse and donkey carts that were made by his father, Raffaele, and to hear the story about them.  His collection is recognized by UNESCO and was stunning!

Our home for the night was at Vecchia Masseria an agriturismo (farm stay).  Incredibly picturesque and charming, this was our favorite accommodation of the trip.  There are hundreds of pictures of the property posted on Trip Advisor, but I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the property, so I can bring you some of my own:

Coming up next: SICILY & AMALFI COAST #12: MARVELOUS MOSAICS & A WONDERFUL WINERY