The Selinute temples

Ancient Greek temples overlooking the sea in Selinute, Sicily

Selinute's archaeological site is split between two zones, the East Hill temples (where the ticket booth is) and the West Hill Acropolis. All the temples are simply known by letters, since academics cannot agree to which god any one temple was dedicated.

The site is open daily 9am to one hour before sunset, but especially in summer they usually clear you out later, during dusk, allowing you to watch the sun set (the ticket office closes one hour before the site).

Selinute's East Hill

The ticket office entrance leads first to the East Hill, nearest the development of Marinella and boasting the largest temples.

The first one you reach, Temple E, is in the best shape of any—earthquakes shook down all the columns at Selinute that conquerors and later raiders left standing; what we see are reconstructions (in this case, rebuilt in 1958). This Doric temple (490 BC) was probably dedicated to Hera or Aphrodite, and measures an impressive 223 by 84.5 feet, with 42 columns standing.

Temple F (560–540 BC) is the oldest, dedicated to Athena or Dionysus, and retains enough 6-foot-high column stumps for people to pose melodramatically atop them.

Beyond, Temple G was the behemoth of the bunch, dedicated to Zeus or Apollo and, at 363 by 165 feet, second in size only to the Temple of Olympian Zeus at Agrigento. It was started in the early 6th century BC, and never quite finished, but the statistics are impressive: the columns were 53 feet high and over 11 feet around, made up of stacked stone drums each weighing 100 tons. It has imploded as a structure, although one column thrusts aloft from the towering jungle gym of rubble.

Selinute's West Hill

From the parking lot, a long road leads in 5 minutes (20 min. walking) to the West Hill, the Acropolis of the ancient city (the city itself lies mostly unexcavated to the north of here).

First up here are Temple O and Temple A, virtual twins from 480 BC—the last, and most advanced, of Selinute's temples. Temple A is in better shape, preserving a mosaic bull's head.

Temple C was another massive structure, as you can tell by wandering under the line of 12 columns put back up in the 1920s. It was built in the early 6th century BC and contributed a series of stellar metopes to Palermo's archaeology museum.

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