The Valley of the Temples is amongst the most evocative sites of the Greek world and one of the most important complexes outside Greece. You will visit the temples that stand on the high ridge overlooking the sea, walk the Sacred Way, and discover the magnificence of the Concordia Temple, which was converted into a Christian church in the 6th century and, because of that, was spared from much of the devastation which afflicted the site over the centuries. You will walk between the Temple of Zeus ruins, the largest temple built by the Greeks, which was destroyed to build the harbour near Porto Empedocle.
Scala dei Turchi’s cliff rises between two fine sandy beaches, and to access it, you have to proceed along the coast and climb up an ascent similar to a large natural limestone staircase. (To access the Scala dei Turchi, it is necessary to purchase a ticket online in advance on the My Scala dei Turchi website or through the i-Ticket platform.) The Scala dei Turchi has a wavy and irregular shape, with lines that are not rough but sweet and roundish. The name comes from the past raids of Saracen pirates, named conventionally by locals as “Turchi" (Turkish). These pirates, in fact, found this site as a safer landing place for their ships, saving them from the beating of the hammering African winds, compared to the rest of the Southern coastline.
