Kolymbetra Garden
Step down into Kolymbetra and the Valley of the Temples recedes behind you. The citrus grove at the bottom — more than 660 trees, nearly half of them rare or ancient varieties — is irrigated by the same underground aqueducts that have been running since the fifth century B.C. Lemons, mandarins, citrons, blood oranges: the names on the labels here are varieties most supermarkets forgot long ago.
The garden occupies a natural cleft in the ridge, which means shade most of the day and a microclimate noticeably cooler than the open archaeological park above. The walk down is easy; the return is a gentle climb.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who come back tend to time it for March, when the orange trees are in full blossom and the scent meets you before you reach the valley floor. Others return in autumn for the harvest colours. The shop near the exit sells the garden's own blood-orange and bergamot marmalades — worth picking up before you leave.
The story behind Kolymbetra Garden
In 480 B.C., following the Battle of Himera, the tyrant Theron of Akragas put his Carthaginian prisoners to work digging a network of drainage tunnels beneath this valley. The engineer was an architect named Phaeace, and what he built — roughly 185 metres of underground channels dropping 11 metres in elevation — still carries water today. The basin those tunnels fed was called the Kolymbethra, and it was initially stocked with fish and frequented by swans.
The basin was filled in during the first century A.D., and over the following centuries the Church took over management and introduced citrus cultivation — giving the place the Sicilian word for a citrus grove: garden. By the 1980s the last farmers had gone and the land fell into abandonment. In 1999 the Region of Sicily handed it to FAI, the Italian Environmental Fund, and director Giuseppe Lo Pilato led the restoration that opened the garden to the public on 9 November 2001. An eighteenth-century farmhouse on the ridge, Case Montana, reopened after its own FAI restoration in December 2025.
Good to know
Enter from Gate 5 (Porta V), the closest access point with parking. A separate ticket covers the garden; a combo ticket adds the Valley of the Temples, and a surcharge gets you into the Phaeacian hypogea. FAI and National Trust members enter free. Allow 45 minutes to 1.5 hours.
Summer visits are possible if you go early morning or late afternoon — the grove offers more shade than anywhere else in the archaeological park. Autumn brings fruit harvests and a quieter pace; winter is quieter still. March is when the orange trees bloom.
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What travellers say about Kolymbetra Garden
We visited today while we were at the Valley of the Temples—sort of as an afterthought, but it turned out to be as fascinating as anything we saw today! A lush garden with dozens of orange and lemon trees and a fascinating history. Their staff were really knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the past and future of the Giardino, and offered samples of some of the marmalade they make with the fruit raised there. A unique place and a fine contrast to the stony monuments. Well worth the visit!
It is a fantastic place, where you can enjoy a wonderful walk through the orchards and the gurgling waters that flow all around. You will enjoy the fruits as well and the wonderful scents of plantsIt is a fantastic place, where you can enjoy a wonderful walk through the orchards and the gurgling waters that flow all around. You will enjoy the fruits as well and the wonderful scents of plants
Wow! Beautiful botanical garden on the site of the ancient Greek garden at the foot of the Valley of Temples. Also not to miss: the "hypogeum" -- an ancient tunnel carved through the hill (under the Temple of Castor and Pollux) joining the garden with the Fifth Gate. After baking your brains out visiting the temple complex under the merciless sun, treat yourself.
There is a wide variety of citrus species and varieties, but unfortunately there are no signs explaining what they are.
Enter The Valley of the Temple from the door. 5 (porta V) is the closest entrance to the gardens. The entrance will be next to the first temple. By giardino they mean a mainly lemon fields and a small vegetable garden. The cave can’t be visit without a previous booking so make sure you book un advance. No information charts are around the area so it makes the visit a bit boring without much info. I believe the place has great potential but a thought storytelling is needed. Many benches and places for a rest is good so bring food and you can sit here.
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