Selinunte wheelchair accessible tours travel to a Sicily excursions

Selinunte Wheelchair Accessible Tours

Selinunte is an archaeological park of 40 hectares, located in the municipality of Castelvetrano, near Trapani.

We find ourselves at the South West coast of Sicily, preserving still features ancient and wildness.

Here the past history of Sicily, throbbing of wars, rebellions and victories, defeats and new ascents, finds one of its founding fulcrums.

According to Greek sources, in fact, the city was founded by colonists from Megara Hyblea in the VII century BC.

The name comes from the Greek word Selinon, meaning wild parsley, found in abundance by the Greeks in these places to the point of even printed in coinage selinuntina.

Often at war with Segesta border disputes.

The center was short-lived and was finally destroyed by the Romans around 250 BC at the end of the first Punic War.

Touring Selinunte

The beauty of Selinunte is therefore in its ancient ruins and in the set of temples that dot this archaeological park.

Acropolis, located on a hill overlooking the harbor, were found the remains of six temples.

Some of which are dedicated to Apollo, Athena and Dioscuri, while three others had been erected on the eastern hill.

Among them includes the famous Temple E, dedicated to Hera, the only one to have been partially reconstructed.

It became known to scholars for the decorative cycle that showed, in stone and local fossil-flecked limestone, among the finest examples of Sicilian Greek art.

The set of sculptures emerged during excavations are now in the Archaeological Museum of Palermo, for the exception of the bronze Ephebe of Selinunte, preserved in the museum of Castelvetrano.

The Agora

The Agora of the ancient city was located on Hill Mannuzza.

Here was found trapezoidal area bounded by a road in 1985.

Other Selinuntino sanctuary was dedicated to the cult of Demeter, who together with her daughter Persephone was particularly venerated in Sicily.

The temple was located on the present Hill Gaggera, where proto Corinthian and Corinthian vases were found.

A visit to these places offers the possibility to the mind of the visitor to imagine an ancient polis, rich in temples and sacred wet from the sea, omnipresent, still laps this fascinating site.