SICILY: TEMPLES AND MONUMENTS

History, in Sicily, is incredibly rich: exploring the region, one is faced with layers upon layers of different periods, remains of different civilizations, ruins, palaces, temples, and more. All these are deeply rooted and immersed in a nature that would be magnificent if some men didn't decided that making money with bold disregard for any rules, for the respect of archeological, ecological & environmental problems and requirements was more important than the preservation of thousands of years of historical and cultural heritage - as you can see that for instance in Agrigento's Valley of the Temples, where the valley has been ravaged by unruled & uncontrolled developments. However, luckily this is not always the case, and you can appreciate the archeological remains in Selinunte & Segesta, or the baroque cities such as Siracuse, Noto & Modica and much more in a relatively unspoiled environment. Here the Doric Temple in Segesta, unfinished but majestic nevertheless, from a rarely seen angle:

Segesta, Italy 2012

And the same temple, first again from an unusual viewpoint:

Doric Temple, Segesta, Italy 2012

Then a more classical close-up:

The temples in Selinunte are very well known, but what inspired me there was - more than the still-standing, over-photographed temples - working in & from the rubble of the other temples:

Ruins, Temple of Dionysius, Italy 2012

Temple of Hera and ruins of Dionysius, Italy 2012

Again in Selinunte, the Temples may on occasion serve as background for herds of sheep:

who graze undisturbed in the Archeological park's grounds. 

And one last, from the Valley of the Temples, near Agrigento, where exhibitions of new art uses as background the millenary display that the Temples provide:

Icarus Fallen, Italy 2012

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, not all is well though: in this photo of the Temple of Concordia, you can see the developments behind (including heavy industries on the far left side), which definitely make the viewing experience less pleasant and which could have been built a few miles away, easily.

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Now for the technical stuff (click to go to the related product page): all images shown here have been shot with a Nikon D3X equipped with the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 AF-S, the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S and the Nikon 135mm f/2.0 DC. For support I used a Gitzo tripod equipped with an Arca Swiss Cube head; last, but certainly not least, I also used Singh-Ray filters, including a polarizer & various ND filters. Photos have been developed in Nikon Capture NX 2 and finished in Adobe Photoshop CS6.

Thank you for reading this far, and see you soon on the blog! Stay tuned for more...

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