Hellenistic Roman Quarter in Agrigento in Valley of Temples
The Hellenistic Roman Quarter of the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento is an urban sector with a regular layout that follows in orientation and setting what must have been the urban plan of the city of the classical period.
The district is characterized by three main roads, the decumani, which intersect with four secondary roads, the cardi. The houses were also separated from each other, as per Greek tradition, by narrow "ambitus", which allowed pedestrians to pass through.
In the Hellenistic Roman quarter there are twenty-seven houses all made of sandstone blocks according to classical Greek use, but of different types: some peristyle, according to a purely Hellenistic tradition, others instead with an atrium characterized by an Italic-type impluvium.
In some houses there are traces of stuccoes and paintings on the walls and mosaic floors, both with tesserae in opus signinum or tessellatum from the late Republican age, and various types of figurative representations from the first centuries of the empire.
Beyond "tabernae" with sales counters have been identified for housing. These buildings are all arranged along the main streets and one of these has a bench prepared for the insertion of jars and amphorae.
The Hellenistic Roman quarter also has a accurate water system with numerous cisterns for the water collection and disposal channels.
