This tour visits Selinunte, the largest archaeological park in Europe, with nearly 700 acres including numerous temples, shrines, altars and necropolises. For fans of ancient Greece, this is a highlight of any visit to Sicily.
After meeting your guide you drive to the site at Selinunte, a Greek city founded around 650 BC. It stands on a plain overlooking sandy beaches and the sea, not far from the modern towns of Marsala and Agrigento on the southern coast of Sicily. Most of the temples at Selinunte were built around 500 BC in the Doric architectural style, and at its height the city's acropolis held five temples and a population estimated as high as 30,000, not including slaves.
In 409 BC the city was besieged and destroyed by the Carthaginians, who razed its walls; only a small fraction of its inhabitants managed to escape. Selinunte never fully recovered its former stature, though it was later repopulated as a Carthaginian tributary.
Recent excavations have brought to light a ring of walls and a gate that once surrounded the city for protection. Several large necropolises at Selinunte contain many graves that give experts clues into the number of people who lived here, and these graves have also yielded thousands of objects, such as Greek vases and terracotta statuettes.
Your local guide explores the park with you and recounts its history. After a detailed tour of the site you have free time to enjoy lunch before returning to Palermo.
If you cannot find what you are looking for, our Sicily Palermo tours and Sicily Palermo Shore Excursions can also be customized to fit your needs. If you have a larger group, we can offer you a private Sicily Palermo tour using a mid-size bus or full size coach. Please contact us with any questions or to receive a customized quote.