la bella sicilia (part four)

the view of my hotel from the temple of concord, agrigento

more sicily pictures! today, everything is greek and flowering almonds. there might be an olive or two, too. these are from the valley of the temples at agrigento and the temple complex at selinute. the weather was awful--i wish i could have bright blue skies lighting up the backgrounds...but no. i had to stop shooting when the rain came down as the leica no es waterproof.

western sicily has the most greek ruins outside of greece, and agrigento's temple of concord is the second largest extant greek temple, only surpassed by the parthenon in size. the ruins at selinute are huge and largely...still ruined. there are only a few standing temples there and the rest are still in piles of stone, as they fell centuries ago.

enjoy!

almond blossoms flowering on very old trees--i prefer these to cherries any day

and the almond blossoms were everywhere! i was in agrigento for the festival of the almond blossom...which i actually didn't go to, but i heard it all night

really really really old olive tree with massively gnarled trunk

almond blossoms and the temple of concord--this is the best preserved temple at the site

temple of concord--i didn't do anything to the color of this picture, this really is what it looks like in the evening

close up of the temple of concord

side view of the temple of concord--wish i could have gotten behind that fence!

the view of the actual valley beneath the hilltop of the valley of the temples...does that make sense?

lovely ridge ruins between two temples

temple of hera lacinia

temple of hera lacinia at night--again, the light is what it is and the temples just seem to glow in the twilight + flood lamps

temple E at selinute--those yellow flowers are oxalis, which i have to believe are invasive in sicily

interior, temple E (also known as temple of hera)

close up of column and floor, temple E

the cool thing about the temples in sicily is that rather than being made of marble, which would have had to have come from somewhere else, the greeks used tufa--volcanic stone--which was readily available everywhere. you can see the texture created by the tufa here--totally different from smooth marble, but still strong and effective

leaving selinute to drive to palermo in some godawful weather, i finally noticed how timed parking in sicily works--check out the cool dial-y thingy you're supposed to set when you pull into a spot! very clever...

next time: palermo, and maybe monreale, then home!