Temple of Olympian Zeus - Agrigento

After their magnificent victory over the Carthaginians at Himera (480-479 BC), the inhabitants of Agrigento, according to Greek custom, erected a victory monument in gratitude to Zeus, which was one of the largest in antiquity due to its proportions.

The overall appearance of the temple is well known , but there are still many controversies over important details of the reconstruction of the elevation, to which an entire room of the National Museum is dedicated. What makes the Temple of Zeus so striking is that it was never completed.

The temple measured 112.70 x 56.30 m (6340 m2) and had a pseudoperipteral shape, i.e. surrounded not by free columns, but by half-columns, seven Doric half-columns on the short sides and fourteen on the long sides. The diameter of the columns was 4.30 m with a height between 14.50 and 19.20 m.

The grandeur of the temple can be measured by the size of the remains of a capital in relation to the human body.

Today the temple has been reduced to a field of ruins as a result of the destruction that began in ancient times (When the Carthaginians invaded Akragas in 406 BC, 76 years after their ignominious defeat at Himera, they understandably left not a stone of this temple standing together) and continued into modern times. The temple collapsed completely during an earthquake that occurred on December 19, 1401 . Parts of the building were used in modern times (as late as the 18th century) as a quarry for the construction of the docks of Porto Empedocle.

Willem Vandenameele