Selinunte

 Selinunte, with its Greek origin, was founded in the second half of the seventh century BC, and is  an example of the most extraordinary collection of ruins and the most complete site discovered to date of “Siceliota” civilization of fourth and fifth centuries BC, as well as one of the most important archaeological parks of the entire Mediterranean.

The various temples, whose ruins can be visited, offering a range of styles ranging from the Archaic architecture to the  Doric one. Nowadays we are not sure about  the destination votive of some of them, but the most impressive and best preserved are allowed to go back to the gods of whom the cult was celebrated.

The most famous is the Temple of Hera, built in the fifth century and considered, nowadays, the best example of the Doric Temple of the Mediterranean.

The Selinunte are more loyal to  the temple dedicated to Apollo, the god to protect the community Selinunte, identified today as the Temple G: today is one of the largest temples of classical antiquity, whose construction began in 580 a. C. and that even in 480 BC had not yet been completed. It covers an area of ​​approximately 600 square meters, with a peristyle of 46 massive columns, about 16 meters high with a circumference of 10.70 mt; stately and imposing, gives an idea of what was to be his grand column that emerges today from the solitary and storage of the ruins, restored in 1832.

Events, the Acropolis, surrounded by walls of about two or three feet thick, which stood on an irregular flat , in which besides the Templar buildings, some sacred shrines and altars can be seen.

However, the largest temple of the Acropolis, built in the mid-sixth century in a panoramic position, with respect to the esplanade, was formed by two gables, within which you admired a gorgon mask of clay, now housed at the National Museum of Palermo , along with the metopes also made up of clay,  which decorated with floral motifs the gables  themselves.