A city with a glorious history, Agrigento is without a doubt one of Sicily’s gems. Here, time seems to have stopped centuries ago, at the dawn of western civilization. Founded around 580B.C. with the Greek name of Akragas given by settlers from Gela and Rodi, Agrigento still bears the traces of the various people that settled it. The city reached its peak in the V century B.C., before the city’s decline caused by the dominion of the Carthaginian people. It was later conquered by the Romans, who renamed it with the Latin name of Agrigentum.The city’s rich archaeology is shown by the famous Valley of the Temples, declared by the UNESCO a World Heritage Site, containing one of the largest archeological parks in the world, 1300 hectares wide. The Archaeological Park of Agrigento contains the remains of the ancient city of Akragas and the series of important temples, about 10 of them, from the hellenistic period, among them the Temple of Hera Lacinia and the Temple of Concordia.