Mothia wheelchair accessible tours Sicily disabled holiday package

Mothia Wheelchair Accessible Tours

The most important Phoenician colony in Sicily is Mothia, an enchanting little island of really small dimensions.

Was used to dock the Phoenician ships in the Mediterranean and it was possible to access by sea, thanks to very low water along a secret underwater path.

The island is part of the Regional Natural Reserve of the Stagnone Islands, in Marsala.

The Island of Mothia ( called Filanda because of the presence of plants for the processing of wool ) was the homeland of the inhabitants of Marsala.

The Phoenician merchants, before the city founded by them was destroyed by the tyrant Dionysius of Syracuse.

It is the only one of the three Phoenician sites on which nothing was built in later times.

It was equally discovered only in the XVII century and began to excavate in the early XX century.

At the behest of the archaeologist, ornithologist, factotum Joseph Whitaker, to whom we owe the fortune of Marsala Wine.

Phoenician Colony In Sicily

The ruins occupy the entire Island of San Pantaleo, which can be reached in just a few minutes by boat from the mainland.

The archaeological area is, beyond the ticket office, the Whitaker Museum, which collects the artifacts found during the excavations on the island.

Among all, the Giovanetto of Mothia, a large marble sculpture of the V century B.C.

Depicting a man ( probably an officer of high rank ) posing sensual and casual, with a tunic that wraps the athletic forms of his muscular body.

The ruins begin outside the museum.

La Casa dei Mosaici, is a complex of two houses whose floors are decorated with black and white mosaics.

To north, follow a well preserved section of the walls along dirt tracks that once were the main streets of the city, now hardly recognizable.

At the left of the door, along the shore, there are necropolis and the tophet, the Phoenician-Punic sanctuary where most of the pieces were found.

Not far from the door, towards the inside, there is a Punic industrial district, anciently dedicated to the production of pottery and ceramics..