Temple of Olympian Zeus, Agrigento

Temple of Olympian Zeus
Model of the Temple of Olympian Zeus in the Archaeological Museum, Agrigento
General information
Architectural style	Doric
Location	Agrigento, Sicily
Coordinates	37°17′27″N 13°35′4″E / 37.29083°N 13.58444°E / 37.29083; 13.58444Coordinates: 37°17′27″N 13°35′4″E / 37.29083°N 13.58444°E / 37.29083; 13.58444
Construction started	480 BC ?
Technical details
Size	Length : 112.70 metres (370 ft) Width : 56.30 metres (185 ft) Height : 20 metres (66 ft)

The Temple of Olympian Zeus (or Olympeion; known in Italian as the Tempio di Giove Olimpico) in Agrigento, Sicily was the largest Doric temple ever constructed, although it was never completed and now lies in ruins. It stands in the Valle dei Templi with a number of other major Greek temples.

The history of the temple is unclear, but it was probably founded to commemorate the Battle of Himera (480 BC), in which the Greek cities of Akragas (Agrigento) and Syracuse defeated the Carthaginians under Hamilcar. According to the historian Diodorus Siculus, the temple was built using Carthaginian slave labour – presumably defeated soldiers captured after the battle. It is otherwise little mentioned in ancient literature. The Greek historian Polybius mentions it briefly in a 2nd-century BC description of Akragas, commenting that "the other temples and porticoes which adorn the city are of great magnificence, the temple of Olympian Zeus being unfinished but second it seems to none in Greece in design and dimensions."

According to Diodorus, it remained unfinished due to the Carthaginian conquest of the city. The roof was already missing at his time. The temple was eventually toppled by earthquakes and in the 18th century was quarried extensively to provide building materials for the modern towns of Agrigento and nearby Porto Empedocle. Today it survives only as a broad stone platform heaped with tumbled pillars and blocks of stone.

The temple, whose structure is still under debate, measured 112.7 x 56.3 m at the stylobate, with a height of some 20 m. The whole construction was made of small stones blocks, which has led to uncertainty to the total size of the building. According to Diodorus, the columns' grooves could easily house a man; their height has been estimated from 14.5 to 19.2 meters. Each stood on a five-stepped platform approximately 4.5 m above the ground. The enclosure occupied a large basement with a five-step krepidoma. The front of the temple had seven semi-columns, an archaic feature that precluded the addition of a central door. The long sides had fourteen semi-columns.