Temple of Olympian Zeus

Across Via dei Panoramica Templi is the entrance to the western zone, the main feature of which is the crumbled remains of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Covering an area measuring 112m x 56m, with columns 20m high, it would have been the largest Doric temple ever built had its construction not been interrupted by the Carthaginian sack of Akragas. Ironically, the foundations for the temple had been laid by Carthaginian prisoners captured after the Battle of Himera nearly 100 years previously.

The incomplete temple was later destroyed by an earthquake. Lying flat on his back amid the rubble is a telamon, a sculpted figure of a man with arms raised, intended to support the temple's weight. One of several planned for the temple, the figure is 8m long.