The Iittle medieval Church of San Biagio  incorporates the Temple of Demeter built (480 B.C.) to an in antis plan with the entrance to the east. The apse occupies the temple doorway of which part of the antas remain; at the cella there are two round altars. Ritual vases in one of them and terracotta busts and statuettes found in the area made it possibie to attribute the sanctuary to Demeter and Kore.

The Rock Sanctuary 01 Demeter  is the city’s oldest sacred building, existing before Greek colonisation. it consists of two chambers hewn in the rock, preceded by a rectangular construction that acted as vestibule, at the foot of which lie communicating pools. The whole area is circled by walls forming the trapezoidal enclosure added later, with openings at the front to admit light and another pair of baths; the discovery of pottery and terracotta busts testifies to the sanctuary’s double use as a sacred and utilitarian site, typical of the Greeks. Close to these remains lies the gateway opening onto the slopes of the Rupe Atenea, at the centre of a huge tenaille bastion, a distinctive measure of defence at the weakest point of the whole Greek fortification. Only the base of the defence tower now remains. Small niches, some stuccoed, in the walls of the GeIa Gate  refer to a rock sanctuary.

Classical and Roman votive objects, attributable to the cult of the underworld deities, have been found there. The Doric Temple of Juno  stands in a dominant position on a mount. Dating to 450 B.C., it is surrounded by columns on a four-stepped podium; the north columnade with the epistyle remains, as does part of the other three sides, with a few elements of the cella. The temple was rebuilt at the time of the Romans after a fire in 406 B.C.. traces of which still exist in the reddened appearance of the cella stonework. A large sacrificial altar stands a few metres from the temple itself.

Elegant, harmonious and solemn, the Temple of the Concordia was, like Juno’s, built on a strong natural base, in 440-430 B.C. In a perfect state of conservation, this is regarded as one of the greatest and most important expressions of the Greek world. Probably dedicated to Castor and Pollux, the temple is surrounded by 34 columns standing on the podium. Both the outside and interior were stuccoed. The roof, now gone, was made of marble tiles. Towards the end of the 6th century the temple was turned into a twin-aisled church by completely changing the original orientation, destroying the end wall of the cella, opening walls with still visible arches and filling in the intercolumns. This church was later suppressed and the temple restored in the l7th century.

Villa Aurea  is the headquarters of the archeological area offices and short term exhibitions are held here. There are remains of a Byzantine cemetery in the luxuriant park; the northeast side of the cemetery continues with underground tombs called the Fragapane grottoes, grouped round three circular chambers joined by passageways and datable, as a whole, to the 4th century B.C. Outside the walls on the south side lies the Hellenistic Roman Giambertoni necropolis, with simple sarcophagus burials or graves and monumental tombs. The Temple to Hercules  was the first of the Agrigento Doric temples and dates to the end of the 6th century BO. On its three stepped rectangular base it once had 38 columns. Only eight remain, returned to their erect position and, some still with capitals, loom majesticaliy in the midst of the ruins. Remains of the altar are visible on the east side. Tero’s tomb  is a small burial monument erected by the Romans in the lst century B.C. Built to a square plan, it has a tower and bas-relief mock openings in each wall.

The little Doric Temple of Aesculapius , dating to the end al the 5th century B.C., rellects simpler Greek architecture with its detail of two semi-columns between the antas, on the exterior of the cella end.

In the precincts of the Sanctuary to the Chthonic Deities  occupying a wide area, stand the remains of four temples and numerous altars. The entire complex, dating to the 6th century B.C., was dedicated to the chthonic deities Demeter and Persephone. Recent digs west of the sanctuary have brought to Iight an archaic sacellum dating to the 6th century B.C, replaced a couple al centuries later by another sacred edifice. Close by lie the foundations  of a temple with remains of post-and-lintel canstruction and columns and a great rectanguiar altar (5th century B.C.). in the middle al the complex stand the four columned ruins al the Temple of the Dioscuri  symbol of the city and dating te the middle al the 5th century B.C. The rich arnamentatian al the trabeatian dates lo Hellenistic-Roman times. Archeological digging be-tween the sanctuary to the underworld deities and the Temple of Olympian Jupiter has brought to light the remains of a Iong 4th century B.C. portico, small shrines, a thesauras, two blocks all houses with sacred buildings (6th century B.C.), 5th century B.C. meeting places, a large round construction dating lo the 4th century B.C. and a paved square.

The Temple to Olympian Jupiter , a colossal sacred edifice,  its praises sung by Diodorous and Palybius, was built la cammemarate victory aver the Carthaginians at Himera (480 B.C.). Picturesque ruins now remain. The tempIe was half-destroyed during the Carthaginian invasion in 409 B.C. and later by numerous earthquakes. This was a pseudo-peripteral building, the peristyle replaced by a huge wall with semicolumns, in the middle of which, amost as though to carry the trabeation, were cyclopic telamons,  the shape of one being visible in the middle of the cella. These giant figures became the symbol of the city. The fine pillared altar base in front of the east face is no less gigantic than the temple.