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...The stone relief, which depicts a prancing horse, was located near the mouth of the Akragas River off the coast of San Leone—a town on the southern coast of Sicily.... One of Italy's 20 regions, the island is located just off the "toe" of the country's "boot."Sicily was first settled by ancient Greek colonists in the 8th century B.C., although the island was eventually conquered by the Romans in the 3rd century B.C...While more research needs to be conducted to uncover the true nature of the find, experts believe it may have been designed as decoration for the Temple of...

A colossal statue of Atlas, buried for centuries among ancient ruins, will soon take its rightful place among the ancient Greek temples of Agrigento on Sicily. The city's archaeological park announced that the artwork, one of the most celebrated sculptures on the island, will be raised upright in front of the Temple of Zeus. In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan or god who was forced to bear the sky on his shoulders after being defeated by Zeus, one of the next generation of gods called Olympians. The statue, eight metres high and built in the 5th century BC, was...

Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily, Italy in 4K (UHD) HDR

Russian magnate Prokhorov reportedly wants to buy Temple of Zeus. The mayor of the Sicilian city of Agrigento said Thursday that he would not sell one of Italy's prime archaeological treasures even for 40 billion euros after it reportedly attracted the interest of Russian industrialist Mikhail Prokhorov. The precious-metals billionaire, who plans to run in this year's presidential elections in Russia as an independent candidate, has set his sights on buying the ruins of the Temple of Zeus in Agrigento's famed Valley of the Temples, according to media reports. But Agrigento Mayor Marco Zambuto has moved to nip the notion...

A very rich votive deposit made up of at least sixty terracotta statuettes, protomes and female busts, oil lamps and small vases, bronze fragments, mixed with a large number of bones: this is what emerged during the excavations in the Valley of the Temples, in House VII b, which forms part of the housing complex north of the temple of Juno. The campaign is entirely financed and supported by the Sicilian Region through the Archaeological Park, directed by Roberto Sciarratta, and is led by the archaeologist Maria Concetta Parello. The finds allow us to understand the dynamics of the destruction...

Archaeologists working in Sicily's Valley of the Temples have found traces of a settlement thought to pre-date the famous Greek temples built there in around 600 BC... The discovery of a structure possibly built before the Greeks arrived came during preparatory work ahead of a project to shore up the ground near the Temple of Hera. Archaeologists uncovered a mysterious walled structure on top of which ancient Greeks had apparently built a shrine and a burial ground. Until now it has been thought that Agrigento was settled by the Greeks soon after they began starting colonies in much of the...

Alexander Hardcastle spent a decade searching for the fabled theatre, which is said to be buried beneath the remains of Akragas, a city established by Greek colonists six centuries before Christ on the southern coast of Sicily... Hardcastle, a former soldier who had served with the Royal Engineers in the Boer War, believed that remains of the stone-built theatre had survived, despite Akragas being shaken by earthquakes, sacked by the Carthaginians and plundered for its stone. The Harrow-educated gentleman scholar, who was born in Belgravia, spent a fortune on the quest between 1920 and 1930, but lost all his money...