The important milestone of the inclusion of the Valley of the Temples in the National Register of 'Rural Landscapes of Historical Interest' – which is intertwined with the recognition obtained by the Valley of the Temples in 1997 as a World Heritage Site – is the result of collaboration between the Archaeological and Landscape Park of the Valley of the Temples, the agricultural company Terra del Barone and FAI – Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano.

The Valley of the Temples covers over 300 hectares of agricultural landscape, where 'almond and olive groves' alternate with fragrant citrus gardens, pastures and Mediterranean scrub.

It is a mosaic of crops, a polycultural and mixed system that integrates different species, where trees are not arranged in regular patterns but follow traditional agronomic criteria handed down over time.

As early as 480 BC, the historian Diodorus Siculus described the Agrigento countryside as a fertile land, rich in 'vineyards of exceptional size and beauty, and most of the land was covered with olive trees whose abundant production was destined for Carthaginian trade'. This landscape has been celebrated over the centuries by numerous writers and artists: from Goethe to Pirandello, from Jean-Pierre Houel's Voyage pittoresque to Renato Guttuso's neorealist depictions. In 1767, Baron Johann Hermann von Riedesel, a German diplomat, writer and archaeologist, described the agricultural fabric of the valley in these words:

"My dear friend, imagine a slope stretching from my window to the sea for four miles in length and six to seven miles in width on each side, covered with vineyards, olive trees, almond trees, superb fodder already in perfect bloom, excellent legumes, in short, all the imaginable produce that the earth can provide, planted alternately with the most graceful varieties; where the possessions of the various owners are separated by hedges of aloe and prickly pears; where more than a hundred nightingales fill the air with their songs, and in the middle of this pleasant countryside stands the well-preserved temple called Juno Lacinia...'.

An agricultural fabric that, even today, remains resistant and promiscuous, as tradition dictates, representing the productive landscape of 'dry' arboriculture, flanked - where water is available - by the cultivation of citrus trees.

On the difficult and arid slopes, between the tuff walls and the valley floor, the typical species of Mediterranean arboriculture are cultivated: majestic olive trees – some of which are centuries old – and almond trees, but also pistachios, carob trees and prickly pears, species capable of adapting to extreme environmental conditions.

In the flatter and more fertile areas, there are plots of land cultivated with espalier vines and citrus 'gardens', which require adequate irrigation. This rural system is complemented by an ancient hydraulic system dating back to the 5th century BC: a network of underground tunnels – known as hypogea – dug into the calcarenite rock, which runs beneath the countryside, feeding irrigation tanks, or gebbie, used to irrigate the gardens. A perfectly preserved example of this system can be found in the Giardino della Kolymbethra, where the ancient system still works today, making the soil fertile and suitable for growing orange, lemon and mandarin trees.

All this demonstrates the existence of an integrated and resilient form of agriculture, which has established itself over time and still plays a fundamental role in the conservation of a unique environment and in the social and economic development of the area.

The Valley of the Temples is thus confirmed not only as one of the symbolic places of classical civilisation, but also as a virtuous example of a historic rural landscape, capable of preserving the link between nature and culture intact.