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.

History

Segesta was one of the main cities of the Elymians, one of the three indigenous peoples of Sicily, with Eryx and Entella, and it was Hellenised very early. Its origins are obscure: a Greek tradition followed by Thucydides in the 5th century BC credited its founding to a band of Trojan settlers, a story the Romans gladly accepted, claiming a common origin with its people (Wikipedia, Segesta).

What you'll find

• 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.

Practical notes

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.

Key facts