Selinute trip planner

A vacation guide to the seaside ancient Greek temples of Selinute, Sicily

Founded by Greeks in the 7th century BC, Selinute was named after the selinon, or wild celery, that still grows in abundance alongside wild capers.

Although relatively short-lived as an ancient capital, Selinute got rich quick, built the temples to prove it, and then was defeated by Carthage and faded into malaria-borne obscurity until the 16th century so that little modernity has corrupted the gorgeous archaeological site.

Today the few re-erected rows of columns of the temples stand against the bright green grass and the deep blues of the sky and the sea, perched picturesquely on a pair of plateaus overlooking the Mediterranean between two small rivers.

Selinute's modern support town is Marinella, a fishing village–cum–modest beach resort that has in the past decade boomed from a single road with a few hotels and restaurants into a thriving little town filling the area east of the site.

Quick tips

• How long? 0.5 days » more
• Best way to to get there: Selinute is on the southwestern coast of Sicily, 98km (59 miles) southeast of Erice and 90km (54 miles) northwest of Agrigento. The gateway to Selinute is Castelvetrano, a lackluster city about 23km (14 miles) inland from the ruins. You need to take a bus from the Castelvetrano train station to the site of Selinute itself, located outside the tourist village of Marinella. » more

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