Giant recumbent Atlas statue at ruins of Temple of Olympian Zeus in Valley of the Temples, site of the Ancient Greek city of Akragas at Agrigento, Sicily, Italy. The full-size colossus is a replica of one of 38 telamons that helped support the temple’s entablature. The structure, one of the world’s largest Doric temples, was destroyed by Carthaginians, earthquakes and stone-robbing.
Image details
Contributor:
Terence Kerr / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
2NTTTCGFile size:
33 MB (3.4 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
2772 x 4166 px | 23.5 x 35.3 cm | 9.2 x 13.9 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
19 August 2011Location:
Valley of the Temples, Agrigento, Sicily, Italy.More information:
This image could have imperfections as it’s either historical or reportage.
Agrigento, Sicily, Italy: Atlas, the mythological Titan leader forced by Zeus, king of the gods, to hold up the heavens for eternity, lies back in Sicilian sunshine on the site of the city of Akragas, hands behind head and weathered face looking up to the sky. The colossal statue lying before the vast Temple of Olympian Zeus in the Valley of the Temples is a 20th century replica of one of the 8m or 26 ft telamons sculpted to support its entablature and roof. The temple, one of the world’s largest Doric structures, was built to celebrate the 480 BC Greek victory over Carthage at Himera. Its builders may have been prisoners of war and the 38 Atlantes telamons were perhaps designed to represent ‘barbarian’ Carthaginians. The temple was still roofless when Carthage took revenge in 406 BC, badly damaging it as the city was sacked. Earthquakes then wrecked the temple and much of its stonework was re-used elsewhere. Only one Atlas telamon survives in relatively complete condition. It now stands upright in the site’s museum, which also holds fragments of eight more. In 2020 the site authorities announced controversial plans to reconstruct an Atlas telamon, using original parts resting on shelves fixed to a vertical steel sheet standing before the temple. In 2023, despite protests that the rebuilt telamon could never be seen as authentic, the scheme was still going ahead. Akragas, founded around 580 BC, was a prosperous port city of Magna Graecia. Its growth stalled after it was sacked and although it did thrive again, it never regained its status. In the 3rd century BC, it changed hands several times as Rome and Carthage fought the Punic Wars. Rome triumphed, renaming it Agrigentum, but after Rome fell, the city was ruled in turn by Vandals, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Saracens and Normans. The ruins are now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. D0857.B0254