Astronomy, topography and landscape at Akragas’ Valley of the Temples

Abstract

Abstract The issue of the orientation of Greek Temples has been the subject of much debate since the end of the 19th century. In fact, although a general tendency to orientation within the arc of the rising sun is undeniable, specific patterns and the true meaning remain obscure. With the aim of shedding light on this problem we present here a new, complete, high-precision survey of the temples of Akragas, the so-called Valley of the Temples UNESCO site. Our results include all temples – one of which was essentially still unpublished – and show that very different reasons influenced the choices of orientation – some symbolic, but others much more practical – beyond the general rule of orienting ‘to the rising sun’. In particular, the temples of the central terrace – including the world famous temple of Jupiter – were oriented in accordance with the town's grid, while a rigorous orientation to the cardinal points is evidenced for the Aesculapius sanctuary. Finally, for two temples having ‘anomalous’ orientations, a stellar and a lunar proposal respectively are made.