Valley of the Temples, Agrigento

Ancient Akragas, founded by Greek colonists around 580 BC, grew into one of the richest cities of the Mediterranean, its wealth built partly on Carthaginian slaves captured in war. Along a ridge stand the remains of a dozen Doric temples raised in the 5th century BC—the finest collection of Greek architecture outside Greece itself. The Temple of Concordia, built around 440–430 BC, is astonishingly intact, saved because it was converted into a Christian church in the 6th century. Nearby, the colossal Temple of Olympian Zeus was to be one of the largest ever, supported by giant human figures called telamones, but was left unfinished when Carthage sacked the city in 406 BC. The poet Pindar called Akragas 'the most beautiful city of mortals.'