Selinunte was one of the most important of the Greek colonies in Sicily, situated on the southwest coast of the island. It was founded by a colony from the Sicilian city of Megara Hyblea. The date of its foundation can be placed around 628 B.C. The colony came into contact with the Phoenicians and the native Sicilians. Selinunte achieved great power and prosperity but there is very little evidence of its history. By the first Punic war the city was under Carthaginian control, but before the end of the war, the Carthaginians removed all the inhabitants and destroyed the city and it seems certain that it was never rebuilt. The city is beside the sea and contains the acropolis and many temples.
The acropolis is a chalk massif, in the form of a massive trapezoid , surrounded by a wall. It had five towers and four gates. The urban plan is divided by two main streets. Once there were multiple altars and sanctuaries then replaced by temples. There are six temples: A and O of which little remains, the temple B, the temple C that is the oldest, the temple D and the temple Y also known as the temple of the small methopes. Temple C is the oldest in this area, dating from 550 BC. Probably it functioned as an archive and was dedicated to Apollo, according to epigraphic evidence or perhaps Heracles. Only the basements of the temples A, B, D, O and Y have remained after the earthquake. Between Temples C and D there are the ruins of a Byzantine village of the fifth century AD, built with recycled stone. Before the main area of habitation, there are the grandiose fortifications for the defence of the acropolis. Only a small part of the fortifications belongs to the old city.
In the East hill there are three temples: the temple E, the most recent, the temple F the oldest and smallest of the three and the temple G that was the largest. Temple E at Selinus in Sicily is a Greek temple of the Doric order. It is also known as the Temple of Hera. However, some scholars argue that it must have been dedicated to Aphrodite. It was built towards the middle of the sixth century BC and it is the best conserved of the temples of Selinus.
Temple G was the largest in Selinus and among the largest in the Greek world. It was not completed. Evidence suggests that it was dedicated to Apollo, though recent studies have suggested that it might be attributed to Zeus.
GAGGERA HILL WITH THE SANCTUARY OF THE MALOPHOROS
Demeter Malophoros was built in the sixth century BC on the slope of the hill and probably served as a station for funerary processions. The place was definitely free of buildings and provided an open area for cult practices at the altar. South of the propylaea, attached to the wall of the enclosure, there was another enclosure dedicated to Hecate. Fifteen metres north there was another square enclosure dedicated to Zeus and to Persephone. A little further up the slopes of Gaggera Hill there is the spring from which the Sanctuary of the Malophoros gets its water. Fifty metres downstream of it there is a building once believed to be a temple (the so-called “Temple M”), which is actually a monumental fountain.
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