Segesta

The temple stands alone on a low hill with nothing around it, thirty-six Doric columns and a full entablature, and is among the best-preserved Greek temples anywhere. It is also unfinished: the columns were never fluted, the bosses used for lifting the blocks were never chiselled off, and there is no trace of a cella or roof, which has led to arguments that work stopped abruptly or that it was never intended as a conventional roofed temple. Segesta was an Elymian city rather than a Greek colony. A theatre cut into the hillside above looks out toward the Gulf of Castellammare and is used for summer performances.

What you actually see

• The unfinished temple - unfluted columns with lifting bosses still in place.
• The empty setting - a temple alone in hills with no town around it.
• The theatre - a hillside auditorium facing the Gulf of Castellammare.
• The Elymian city - remains of a settlement that was not a Greek colony.

When to go

April to June and September to October; summer is extremely hot with no shade. A shuttle bus runs up to the theatre. Performances occupy the theatre in summer.

Honest expectations

There is no shade anywhere on the site. The theatre is a steep climb or a paid shuttle. The temple cannot be entered, only circled.

Nearby

Erice lies west; Palermo is northeast.