From the temple of Juno we walk among the ancient quarries, sepulchres, granaries, and cisterns, to that of Concord; both these names are very uncertain, or rather perhaps it is pretty clear that they are erroneous, but they serve for distinction. Here all the columns are standing, and the walls of the cell, and both fronts, are nearly entire. His Sicilian majesty has had it patched and plastered, and an inscription on marble records restorations executed in stucco. This slab and inscription have, I suspect, cost more than the repairs, and will probably remain to puzzle antiquaries when all traces of the latter have disappeared. The architecture of this temple is inferior to that of Juno. The situation is similar, but less lofty. The entasis of the columns is less evident. The capitals of the pilasters are clumsy, and look ill in the work as well as in drawing. Here also are traces of an extended platform, before the east front, but none of the mode of entering from it, into the temple, nor is there any appearance of steps on the opposite side of the platform. There is not enough of the back wall remaining, to determine whether there was a door between the posticum and the temple.
Continuing our progress westward, partly among thick plantations of Indian fig, we arrive at the Temple of Hercules. This has been much larger than either of the others, but only one fragment of a column is erect. Many others are lying as they fell, and the ruins form quite a hill. The columns were nearly 7 feet in diameter, and about 30 feet high. The clear width of the peristyle was about 11 feet. It appears to have been hexastyle and peripteral, with columns not much more than one diameter apart.
After crossing a little hollow, which probably marks the situation of the ancient outlet of the city towards the port, we find the tremendous ruin of the Temple of Jupiter. Enough remains to shew that it was in bad taste, and of bad construction, but of immense proportions. The stone employed in the Sicilian antiquities is too coarse in its grain, and of too soft and perishable a nature, for the exact discrimination of the forms of the smaller parts. The mere waste of time and weather seems to have been sufficient to reduce the temples to their present state, and in the building before us, the material has I think been crushed in many parts by the superincumbent weight. Do not however form too bad an opinion of it, but recollect that it is 2,200 years since Agrigentum ceased to flourish. This temple was pseudoperipteral, i. e. surrounded by half columns attached to the wall. Part of the middle column still remaining at the east end, shows that there were seven of these behind; and we may make out fourteen on each flank, including the angular ones; but whether there was a central column in front, or how that part was managed we cannot determine. An excavation has been made on the line of the front, in order to solve this question, but it shows nothing but the regular courses of the foundations. More extensive excavations on the north side expose the immense substructions on which the temple rested, rising in a flight of steep steps, at the top of which several of the ancient columns form each a considerable tumulus of its own ruins. We can with difficulty discover some filleting, and perhaps a curved moulding, forming a sort of base. Within, two rows of enormous piers divide the space into three aisles, but of these, the foundations alone remain, and various schemes have been devised to connect these piers with certain colossal figures, which are supposed to have given to the edifice the name of temple of the Giants, by which it has long been known. Fragments of sculpture are indeed found of a vast size, as we might suppose they would be, if forming an essential part of such a building. Some of the stones were of enormous bulk, but in general they were small. The half columns were built up in this manner,
each course being in eight pieces, but each capital was composed of two large blocks. The architrave is in three heights, and the lower stone rests merely on the projections of the capitals. The frieze is in one height, and so is the cornice, except the sima, which is wanting. The projection of the cornice appears to have been nearly 7 feet. The stones of the frieze were lifted into their places by means of a horse-shoe groove at each end, but those of the cornice required two such grooves. We find fragments of ornamented ovolos, of two different sizes, one of which, and perhaps both, belonged to an internal cornice. The sculpture has the smirking character of the early attempts to represent the gods, and we may distinctly trace in one fragment the features of Venus.
If, instead of proceeding directly to this temple after leaving that of Hercules, we descend the hollow, we meet almost immediately with a little edifice of a mixed order, placed on an elevated basement. This is usually called the Tomb of Theron, on the same principle, I suppose, that we are told lucus is derived à non lucendo. All we know of the tomb of Theron is, that it was split by lightning, and this little edifice shows no trace of such an accident. Various guesses have been made, but in fact we have no clue to guide us to what it has been, or to the period of its erection; and farther off on the plain is a ruin, now called the Temple of Æsculapius. Wilkins has given a representation of part of the back wall in the antiquities of Magna Græcia, but one of the antæ in front still exists, and the enclosure of the staircase as in the temple of Concord: so that the plan may be confidently restored. It was a pseudoamphiprostyle, i. e. it had a portico or pronaos in front, no columns on the sides, and only half columns behind.
Returning to the temple of Jupiter, and resuming our course to the north-west, we find some heaps of ruins, which, as my cicerone asserted, belonged to the temple of Castor and Pollux; and further on are two columns, which he pronounced to be the temple of Æsculapius, while he gave the name of Vulcan to the temple in the plain below. These two columns are considered by Wilkins as part of the temple of Castor and Pollux, and I think he is quite as good authority as my little guide, for where there are few visitors, these smaller ruins do not get established names.
Besides these temples, there are in the present city some foundations and stumps of columns of the Temple of Jupiter Polieus; and in the cathedral is a beautiful vase, and a sarcophagus which is much celebrated; one side and one end of the latter are of very good sculpture; the other two are rough in form and finish. It is of a white marble, containing mica, which scales off in places, as in the Pentelic marble; but there are fragments of a similar material in the museum of the prince of Biscari, and I observed pebbles of the same nature in the Fiumare, at the eastern part of Sicily, so that it is perhaps a Sicilian stone. This cathedral is Gothic, and said to be of the 15th century, but I found nothing to interest me in it. The lower part of the Campanile was erected by a man who died in 1485. The rest is of later date, and the arches mostly terminate in reversed curves, yet even here we find the little columns and zigzag ornaments of the Norman, and early English architecture. While I was at Girgenti one man stabbed two others. The first in consequence of a quarrel, of which I could not learn the particulars, the second, because he thought he was going to apprehend him. The offender was secured and taken to jail. It has excited a great commotion in the city, which may be considered as a proof that such things do not often happen.
The soil of Agrigentum and Girgenti is a coarse, brown limestone, full of modern shells, but perhaps not very thick, (i. e. short of 100 feet.) It appears to repose on a formation of clay and gypsum. An older limestone is found up the valley, a few miles from Girgenti.
On the 26th of August I left Girgenti for Monte Allegro, a corruption of the ancient name of Heraclea, which stood in this neighbourhood; and on the morning of the 27th proceeded to Sciacca. About three miles from Sciacca, on the top of a high limestone hill, are the stufe of San Calogero, consisting of a cavern, nearly at the top of a precipice, whence issues a very strong, hot wind, loaded with vapour, but without any disagreeable smell. This cavern bends round so rapidly, that the channel must approach very near the surface of the cliff. The limestone is generally of a brownish colour, and in beds nearly horizontal; the hot wind is said to be strongest in windy weather.