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this week

we visit the valley of the temples

absolutely

the one place in sicily you have got to

go

if you visit this beautiful island go

here

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amazing

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with locked down over and us able to

travel

dean and linda cindy and i decided to

get a hike and a road trip was

the first place that we wanted to go was

the valley of the temples

now we'd heard a lot about this place

but with the um

virus and people not traveling the place

was empty

it's a 1300 hectares

of temples and ruins we were up early

and drove a few miles to agrigento there

was hardly anyone there

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um

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we are now close to the southeast gate

of the greek city

there are a few visible remains of gate

3 the original construction

from the 6th century bc has been damaged

by a lion slide

involving part of the ridge affected by

the numerous

alterations conducted and for various

reasons

that was my best david attenborough yeah

you want to hear me worst

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they must have had a lot of grapes to

press to

use those aren't they up here

look there's fossilized fossils in here

so this this would have been at some

time this slab of rock was at the bottom

of the sea

it's sedimentary deposits of shells

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okay

among the oldest in sicily were about 12

kilometers long from the beginning

their layout has always exploited the

natural features of the site

to enhance its defensive potential

the first stage of construction dates

back to the middle and

end of the 6th century bc

the bedrock was used in numerous

stretches of the walls

which run straight for most of their

length

after having been roughly hewed the

bedrock was incorporated into the rows

of rectangular shaped blocks

of calcarnite the side facing the sea

was fortified before the others

because this was the most easily

assailable slope of the hill

for the same reason it was soon decided

to also build a series of defense towers

after the conquest of the city by the

carthaginians in 406 bc

the inhabitants of agriculture were

forbidden to rebuild the walls

only in 339 bc

when the city was ruled by syracuse was

it once again given the right to protect

itself with a fortified enclosure

at this time various stretches of the

old walls were restored or rebuilt

using the original building technique

new fortifications were also added such

as the watchtowers

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so

oh look it says on that portico

david was here

icaro i'm assuming that's

icarus

ricardo

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dean's going for a wave behind that

ancient tree

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so

so

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so

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so

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so

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do

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so

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smile

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what is it dean it's a

tomb under basically a garden

so i imagine these are the tomb things

here but

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with innumerable mediterranean plants

together with some exotic species

underground burial chambers 5th century

a.d so they're nearly brand new

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the gardens and the house was

spectacular and kept in fantastic

condition

really really pretty unfortunately the

guys were using a weed whacker

and a leaf blower so i had to turn the

sound down a little bit

but you can see it's incredibly well

maintained

this place is just absolutely well

awesome

here alexander hardcastle

oh that was paul parker

twelve labors the temple

made of kalkarinite is the oldest among

those guarding the walls of acrogas

it was built around 510 bc in the

archaic doric style

as evidenced by some of its

architectural features

firstly its proportions the building

does not present the usual

13 columns on each of the long sides as

in the temples of the classical

period but 15. furthermore

since there are six columns on the short

sides the ratio of width to length

appears unbalanced in favor of the

latter

last but not least the marked thickness

of the column drums

the excessively flared capitals which

almost seem flattened

and the unusual width of the interior

corridors

all point to the archaic character of

the building

near the temple opposite the entrance

you can see the remains of the

monumental rectangular altar of

sacrifices

it featured a flight of steps facing the

front of the temple

and a terrace at the top and was used

for animal sacrifices to the gods

unfortunately it was ruined by a deep

cut

with two parallel grooves on the bottom

probably housing a water complement

this temple was absolutely massive i

mean

huge the size of a football field

all of the construction stones were

laying around the outside

where they'd fallen presumably that's

from

tectonic action earthquakes

but for two and a half nearly three

thousand years old

they're in incredible condition

one of the amazing things about this

historic

park valley of the temples is that you

can get up close and personal with

everything

there's a few wooden barriers in front

of some of the artifacts and some of the

buildings

but you can actually walk amongst them

it's like

walking through history it really is

amazing

yeah these bits here

have been mounted on these blocks and

they were

up there

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so they've just put them here so you can

get near them

i guess you see the um

square keyways cut in there

that's how they locked them together

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and that's the

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that's the remains of the altar

that bit there

and the temple

[Laughter]

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is behind the altar

and that's what's left there apparently

the biggest

temple in the ancient world

big as a football pitch

amazing

find it absolutely amazing that after

two and a half thousand plus years these

stones are still standing

and these are the upright stones from

the temple altar the temple is

immediately behind us again that's

massive we'll show you some pictures of

that in a minute

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eight meters high was made of twelve

blocks of limestone

the stone telemet are believed to be

carved images of the enemies that were

defeated by the people that lived at the

temples or in the city there

they were used to support the temples

and in that way they believed

that their defeats would be permanently

recorded in stone and helped to support

the temples

and indeed the city

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at this point it's important to remember

that all of these

cuts slots square holes

grooves and even the decoration were all

carved

using bronze or copper alloy

cutting instruments the only iron that

was about in these times was that that

fell from the sky and this was highly

prized

and not used for work tools

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he looks like the rock man out of

florida the rings

remember

it's beautiful here if you get the

chance to come here you know

it is absolutely astounding

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more ruins here

and another temple

and round one

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again

no need for that was it

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so

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come on

try out for low flying lemons and

oranges

oranges

i put my

the bathing ball has long since gone but

the garden still produces artichokes

almonds oranges lemons

and olives as there's other fruits

two and a half thousand years ago that

was carved out

these last sections of video were filmed

on our iphone 7.

unfortunately our big camera was having

problems with auto focusing

and of course the inevitable flat

battery

this is probably the biggest video

editing job we've ever done

we arrived and started filming around 10

o'clock in the morning

we didn't leave until just gone too we

had over 150 gigabytes of 4k

footage these shafts and

pools that you see here are part of the

original

2000 year plus irrigation system

if you sell to sicily this is absolutely

a must don't miss it

oh

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you