Below the Valley of the Temples lies a working garden grown into the floor of an ancient Greek reservoir. Bitter orange trees, olives and centuries-old carob stand where Terone of Akragas once built a pool with the labour of thousands of Carthaginian prisoners of war.
At a glance
The Giardino della Kolymbethra sits inside the Archaeological Park of the Valley of Temples, between the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Temple of Vulcan. It occupies part of the site of an artificial pool, the kolymbethra, built by the Greek ruler Terone of Akragas in the fifth century BCE. Since 2001 it has been cared for by the FAI, the Fondo Ambiente Italiano, under an agreement with the Regione Siciliana.
What visitors walk through today is a five-hectare Mediterranean garden of bitter oranges, olives and carob trees, planted or grown over the silted floor of what was once a much larger hydraulic basin.
Key facts
- Ancient structure: an artificial pool built by Terone of Akragas after the Battle of Himera in 480 BCE, using Carthaginian prisoners of war as labour.
- Name: kolymbethra, from the Greek κολυμβήθρα, meaning a pool for swimming or a tank for fish-farming.
- Managing body: the FAI, Fondo Ambiente Italiano, which has held the site under a renewable lease from the Regione Siciliana since 2001.
- Garden area: around five hectares, planted with bitter orange, olive and carob trees, some of the carob trees estimated at three to four hundred years old.
- Ancient canal: a stretch of Greek irrigation channel, cut in the rock and dating to the fourth century BCE, survives along the southern edge of the garden.
History
The pool was built for Terone, ruler of Akragas, in the years after the Battle of Himera in 480 BCE, when a Sicilian coalition led by Terone and his son-in-law Gelone of Syracuse defeated a Carthaginian invasion force. Prisoners taken in that battle were set to work on its construction. The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus described the pool as fed by the spring and river of Akragas, stocked with fish, and frequented by swans. Akragas at this time was among the wealthiest Greek cities in the Mediterranean, a status reflected in Pindar’s odes written for Terone’s chariot victory at Delphi in 498 BCE.
The pool went out of use after Akragas was sacked by Carthaginian forces in 406 BCE. Its original function was never restored, and over the following centuries it silted up and was gradually overtaken by vegetation, with local farmers cultivating olives and citrus on the site from at least the sixteenth century.
The FAI took on management of the site in 2001. Between then and 2005 its teams cleared accumulated invasive vegetation, including giant cane and wild fennel, and carried out an archaeological survey before opening the garden to the public in 2006.
What you see
The garden entrance lies near the ruins of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, and a cobbled path descends from the level of the archaeological park down into the floor of the ancient pool basin. Inside, rows of bitter orange trees, planted by the FAI in the early 2000s, share the ground with older olive and carob trees, some of the carob trees reckoned to be several centuries old with substantial trunk girths.
Along the southern edge of the garden a short stretch of the original Greek irrigation canal survives, cut into the rock and built in the dry-stone technique used in the temples of Akragas; it once carried water from the Akragas spring into the pool. From within the garden there are views south to the ruins of the Temple of Vulcan and north to the surviving columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux.
The bitter oranges are harvested between November and January and made into a marmalade sold at the FAI shop by the garden exit; the carob pods are also processed into flour.
Practical information
- Access: the Kolymbethra garden is reached through the Archaeological Park of the Valley of Temples; a separate entry is required in addition to the park ticket. Check current tickets and combined entry on the FAI’s official website.
- Opening times: these vary by season; consult the FAI or the park authority before visiting.
- What to bring: the path into the garden descends from the park level, so comfortable footwear is advisable.
- Best time for the blossom: the bitter orange trees flower in March and April.
Getting there
The garden lies within the Valley of Temples archaeological park, on the outskirts of Agrigento in southern Sicily. It is reached on foot from within the park, near the Temple of Castor and Pollux.
Nearby
- Temple of Castor and Pollux — immediately adjacent, at the garden entrance, with four columns still standing from the fifth-century BCE structure.
- Temple of Vulcan — visible from within the garden on the western ridge, dating from around 450 BCE.
- Valley of Temples — the wider archaeological park in which the garden sits, containing the main sequence of Doric temples of ancient Akragas.
Sources
- FAI, Fondo Ambiente Italiano
- Diodorus Siculus
- Pindar, Pythian Odes
- Herodotus
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