You have just the time to go out of your transport and find yourself in front of the
SEGESTA temple
built in Greek style ( with the hope of gaining benevolence) by the Segestans (originally Elimians), always in the middle of conflicts between the Greeks, whose kingdom had Selinunte as extreme western border, and the Carthaginians, heirs of the Phoenicians who had become "static" inhabitants on the northern coast of Africa, as an exception to their nature of "dynamic" navigants and unbeatable on the sea (it took the Romans three long wars before defeating definitely the Carthaginians). The project was never brought to an end, as demonstrated by the unfinished large stones at the basement, still showing the handle needed to carry them. The stop was probably due to a change of alliance, from the Greeks to the Cathaginians
Only apparently, against any reasonable architectural exigence this isolated monument is faced, on a hill opposite to it, by an important theater, facing a dramatic valley,
the SEGESTA Theater
restored by Romans and site of importance also during the Arab and Norman
conquest of Sicily, as demonstrated by recent escavations in the neighbourood
of this monument.
These escavations render newly interesting the excursion for those who had visited
the site before the year 2000. It was easy to imagine a large city under the
flowers and grass of today: several national and international missions are
presently active.
The theater is presently used during alternating (with Syracuse) Sicilian summers
for performances based on the Greek literary tradition. The sea is scarcely
visible along the horizon and the end of the play usually coincides with the
sunset, awarding a spectacular natural frame to the usually bloody conclusion
of the tragedy.
The origin of the Segestans
One of the major and most reliable Greek historians, Tucidides, calls Elimi
the population in Erice, Segesta, Contessa Entellina and Panormus (Palermo),
a result of the integration of those escaped after the defeat of Troy with local
inhabitants, called Sicani or Sicelioti and probably originated from the mainland
(todays Italy). There are several ancient documents which confirm this thesis.