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Agrigento, lying on the south coast of the island, with the eyes turned towards
the African shores, maintains unsullied the fashion and the grace of the Mediterranean
locality, which was a crossroad of different cultures: local, continental, Greek
and North African. |
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It was founded in 581 B. C. by colonists coming from Gela, who called it Akragas;
in a short time it grew in economic, civil and military importance so much so
that Imera, in league with Syracuse, defeated the Carthaginian army in 480 B.C..
The most important architectural evidences, which put the city in direct competition
with the most important Greek cities, date back to this epoch.
The city is divided into two zones: the modern urban settlement and the "Valle
dei templi", antique sacred territory that is now become a zone of great historical
and archaeological interest. |
