On our fifth day, we travelled to Agrigento, a city on the southern coast of Sicily. Here we visited more temple ruins; in particular, the Temple of Concord (Roman goddess of harmony) which was built at the height of Doric architecture in 5th century BC and is thought to be an “aesthetically perfect” achievement. In fact, the architecture creates a sort of illusion–the columns are slightly swelled in the middle so that from far away the temple will not appear to collapse in on itself. Looking closely. the space between the six columns is not equal, also adding to this effect.
When I first saw this temple, I was surprised at how well-preserved it was compared to the other temples we had seen. It turns out that it was one of the few temples that was maintained and utilized by Christians later on. This temple in particular was turned into a basilica.