Antiquities: Agrigento and Eraclea Minoa

Panorama and panorama in action at the archeological park at Eraclea Minoa, abandoned about 150 BC.

Taking the panorama from a WWII pillbox above the excavations at Eraclea Minoa

We had a couple nice days this weekend and decided to travel to Agrigento to visit the museum on Saturday and on Sunday we returned to Eraclea Minoa, where we had gone 6 years ago.

We had been to Agrigento, to the Valley of the Temples twice. Once with my sister, brother-in-law and brother in 2006 and again in 2011 with Rachel in tow. Since we've walked the temple sites, a real trek in hot weather, we had not had the time or stamina to get to the museum and wanted to see the exhibits and artifacts. It's well worth the extra time. We were really pleased and amazed at the quality of the artifacts. Many were in near perfect condition. Naturally there were repairs on a lot of them but the repairs were minor and well performed. The displays are extensive. One of the docents informed us as we left that there was 3000 square meters in the museum. We've been to the museums in Sibari, Paestum, Reggio Calabria, Selinunte, Segesta,the Vatican and the small one at Eraclea Minoa but none of these had the overall quality of the artifacts we saw at Agrigento. The necropoli there must have been very well excavated or had been extremely fortunate to not have experienced any turmoil that tends to damage or destroy the grave items.

Following are photos from the museum at Agrigento.

Forum outside the museum

Teatro outside of the museum

Basilica at the museum

The detail on this shard was amazing

Statue of Zeus from earliest temple at the site. Now in a conference/assembly room in the museum.

Bronze Grecian helmets

There are modern statues, reminiscent of grecian style throughout the entire site of the valley

Temple of Zeus from the museum

Other views of the Valley of the Temples from the museum

Both of us were taking pictures of the artifacts. The ones that follow are Cathy's.

Amphora at the museum. Note the shells and sea worm remains.

Statues in courtyard outside the museum.

On Sunday we went to Eraclea Minoa. How fortunate a day. The first Sunday of the month there's no charge to visit the small museum or the excavations. The excavations are small compared to Agrigento, Paestum, Sibari and Selinunte because it was a comparably small city. As at Paestum you can walk almost everywhere, even through the sites of the old houses. The amphitheater and two of the houses are covered to protect them from weather.

A depiction of Medusa, you can see the snakes from her head, and a gorgon, a traditional symbol of luck. Sicilians use it to keep evil spirits away from their house

The theater at Eraclea Minoa

Details of the seats

Marble stones used for building. Note the flakes of silica in the stone. It's a soft marble, easily carved for building blocks.

Casa II. One of the covered sites

Casa I

View of the beach at the village of Eraclea Minoa from the excavation.

WWII pillbox on the top of the hill at the excavations

View inland from the pillbox

White rock at Capo Bianco at the entrance to the excavations.

The cliffs at Capo Bianco

Capo Bianco from the beach at the village of Eraclea Minoa

The beach, looking easterly from the village.

Unfortunately we don't have polarizing filters for our cameras so the objects in the cases have reflections, as you can see.

The museum at the Eraclea Minoa excavations is really small. There's only about 6 cases but the artifacts are all from the site.

The museum at Agrigento has artifacts from throughout southern Sicily, including Monte Adranone, Ribera, and other sites on the southern coastal area.

Tomorrow the weather is changing. It's raining right now at 9:00 PM and is supposed to continue for a couple days. Hopefully it will be a normal rain, not the exceptional 10-20 year one we went through a couple weeks ago. I really don't want to have a leaking roof over the bed again.

Oh well, time for another glass of wine and a shower, I suppose.

Ciao for now.