In the 6th century BC, a Greek city on the southwestern coast of Sicily minted coins bearing the image of a celery leaf above a panther’s head. The city was named Selinunte, from the Greek selinon celery because the plant grew in exceptional abundance in the river valleys around the settlement. At its peak, around 400 BC, the city held approximately 30,000 inhabitants and was one of the wealthiest and most ambitious Greek colonies in the western Mediterranean, constructing temples of a scale that rivalled the greatest sacred architecture of mainland Greece.
In 409 BC, a Carthaginian army destroyed Selinunte in a siege of catastrophic violence. The city was never fully rebuilt. Over the following centuries the temples collapsed in earthquakes, the population dispersed and the site was gradually buried. Today it forms the largest archaeological park in Europe 270 hectares of ancient temples, city streets, fortifications, sanctuaries and necropolises spread across three hills above the Sicilian sea, less visited than the Valley of the Temples at Agrigento and more immersive in almost every respect.
In this guide
- History of Selinunte
- The archaeological park five zones explained
- The temples why they have letters, not names
- Cave di Cusa the abandoned quarry
- Marinella di Selinunte
- How to visit route, shuttle and timing
- Getting to Selinunte
- What to combine with Selinunte
- Practical information
- Frequently asked questions
Selinunte quick facts
- Location: Marinella di Selinunte, province of Trapani, southwestern Sicily
- Park size: 270 hectares (660 acres) largest archaeological park in Europe
- Tickets (2025): €14 adults; shuttle €8 (short route) or €12 (longer route)
- Opening hours: 9am to 8pm (May to September); reduced hours in winter check official site
- Time needed: 3 to 4 hours minimum; half a day is comfortable
- From Palermo: approximately 1 hour 30 minutes by car (via A29, exit Castelvetrano)
- From Trapani: approximately 1 hour by car
- From Agrigento: approximately 1 hour by car
- Best combined with: Valley of the Temples (1 hour east), Segesta (45 minutes north), Marsala (1 hour north)
History of Selinunte
Selinunte was founded around 628 BC by settlers from Megara Hyblaea, itself a Greek colony on the eastern coast of Sicily. Its position at the southwestern tip of Greek influence in Sicily placed it in permanent tension with the Carthaginian and Elymian powers of western Sicily the city of Segesta, its immediate northern neighbour, was an Elymian settlement that Selinunte fought repeatedly over border territory and cultural dominance.
Through the 6th and 5th centuries BC, Selinunte grew into one of the most prosperous cities in the Greek Mediterranean world. The wealth generated by agriculture (the celery-rich river valleys, olive groves and grain fields of the Sicilian interior) and by trade funded a programme of monumental temple construction that was among the most ambitious undertaken by any Greek colony. At its height, the city’s architectural ambition was comparable to that of Athens several of its temples exceeded, or were designed to exceed, anything built on the Greek mainland.
The end came in 409 BC. Selinunte had allied itself with Carthage’s enemy Syracuse, and the Carthaginian general Hannibal Mago (grandson of Hamilcar, killed at the Battle of Himera) led an army of approximately 100,000 men against the city. The siege lasted nine days. After the walls were breached, the massacre was catastrophic ancient sources record 16,000 dead and 5,000 enslaved. The temples were looted, the city burned. A partial resettlement under Carthaginian administration lasted until the First Punic War (250 BC), after which Selinunte was permanently abandoned.
The temples fell in major earthquakes, probably in the medieval period, reducing most of them to immense horizontal fields of collapsed drums and architrave blocks. The site remained known locally as Impastato (“jumbled”) and was rediscovered by European archaeologists in the 18th century. Major excavations in the 19th and 20th centuries revealed the full extent of the city. The reconstruction of Temple E using the original fallen blocks was completed in the 1950s and remains the only standing temple at the site.
The archaeological park five zones explained
The Selinunte Archaeological Park is divided into five main zones spread across three hills separated by the valleys of the ancient rivers Selinos and Cottone. The two principal areas open to visitors are the Eastern Hill (Collina Orientale), near the main entrance, and the Acropolis, approximately 1.5 kilometres to the west. A shuttle connects the two for those who prefer not to walk.
The Eastern Hill contains the three most impressive temples E, F and G and is the standard first stop on a visit. Temple E is the standing one, reconstructed and immediately dramatic on arrival. Temples F and G lie in ruins of varying degrees, with the colossal fallen blocks of Temple G providing the most overwhelming sense of ancient scale in the entire park.
The Acropolis was the civic and religious heart of ancient Selinunte the fortified hill overlooking the sea where the city’s main temples, public buildings and residential quarters were concentrated. Four additional temples (A, B, C and D) stand here in partial ruin, with Temple C retaining a row of upright columns that frame a view of the sea that would have been visible from approaching ships. The ancient street grid, the city walls with their North Gate, and the residential quarter of Mannuzza Hill give the Acropolis a different and more intimate character than the Eastern Hill less dramatic individually but more evocative of the ancient city as a whole.
The Western Sanctuary (Gaggera Hill) contains the sanctuary of the goddess Malophoros (“bearer of pomegranates”), one of the most important pre-Greek and early Greek cult sites on the island, with votive deposits spanning several centuries. The necropolises extend outside the main inhabited areas and are partially visible from the park routes. The full park also includes a small museum (Antiquarium Baglio Florio) near the eastern entrance with material excavated from the site.
The temples why they have letters, not names
The most frequently asked question about Selinunte is why the temples are identified by letters (E, F, G, A, B, C, D, O) rather than by the names of the gods to whom they were dedicated. The answer is that nobody knows who most of them were dedicated to.
The dedications of Greek temples in the colonies were rarely recorded in ways that survived inscriptions are absent or ambiguous, ancient literary sources are fragmentary, and the archaeological evidence from votive deposits is open to multiple interpretations. Scholars have proposed various identifications (Temple E as Hera or Aphrodite; Temple F as Dionysus or Athena; Temple G as Zeus or Apollo) but none has achieved consensus. The letter system, adopted by 19th-century archaeologists, reflects this uncertainty honestly and has been retained.
What is certain about the individual temples:
Temple E is the most recently dated of the Eastern Hill temples (approximately 460 BC) and the one most confidently attributed, by most scholars, to Hera. It was reconstructed in the 1950s a controversial decision that nevertheless allows visitors to experience a genuine sense of a Doric temple’s proportions: the columns rise more than 10 metres, the stylobate stretches 68 metres by 27 metres, and the quality of the surviving carved metopes (now in the Palermo Archaeological Museum) indicates a standard of craftsmanship comparable to the Parthenon frieze. This is the only standing temple in the park and the principal visual destination on arrival.
Temple F, immediately to the north, is ruined and smaller its identification as a temple to Dionysus or Athena remains uncertain. The column drums and foundation blocks survive at a scale that gives a clear sense of the building’s original footprint.
Temple G is the most extraordinary structure at Selinunte and one of the most overwhelming architectural ruins in the ancient world. Had it been completed, it would have been the fourth largest Doric temple ever built, covering approximately 113 metres by 54 metres, with columns designed to reach 16 metres in height. It was never finished construction was interrupted, probably by the Carthaginian destruction of 409 BC, and the half-completed building fell in subsequent earthquakes into a field of colossal drums that covers an area the size of a city block. Walking through the ruins of Temple G through the labyrinth of drums, each one taller than a person and weighing many tonnes is unlike any other architectural experience in Sicily. The scale of what was intended, and the specific quality of abandonment frozen at the moment of catastrophe, makes this the single most affecting structure at Selinunte.
Temple C on the Acropolis is the oldest surviving structure in the park (approximately 560 to 550 BC) and one of the oldest Greek temples in Sicily. A row of its columns was re-erected in the early 20th century and stands against the sky above the sea with a particular stillness older, rougher and more deeply weathered than the reconstructed Temple E, its limestone turned golden by fifteen centuries of Sicilian sun.
Cave di Cusa the abandoned quarry
Eleven kilometres north of Selinunte, on the road toward Campobello di Mazara, the Cave di Cusa are the quarries from which the limestone blocks for all of Selinunte’s temples were extracted. They are one of the most haunting sites in Sicily and are almost unknown to visitors who do not specifically seek them out.
The quarries preserve, still in situ, the partially extracted columns and drums of the temples abandoned at the precise moment of the Carthaginian attack in 409 BC and never recovered. Enormous column drums, still attached to the living rock at one end and partially cut free at the other, lie exactly as the Greek stone cutters left them when news of the attack arrived. The extraction tools the channels cut around the drums, the wedge slots, the loading ramps are still visible. The quarry is an open-air document of ancient construction technique, preserved by abandonment rather than by restoration.
The Cave di Cusa are accessible by car (approximately 15 minutes from the main Selinunte entrance) and are free to visit. Allow 45 minutes. There is minimal shade bring water and sun protection. The combination of the Cave di Cusa in the morning with the archaeological park in the afternoon makes the most complete possible visit to the ancient city of Selinunte.
Marinella di Selinunte
The small seaside village of Marinella di Selinunte sits immediately east of the archaeological park entrance, its beach running along the base of the Eastern Hill with the reconstructed columns of Temple E visible above the sand from the water. Swimming below a Greek temple on an otherwise empty stretch of Sicilian coast in September, with the ruins visible above the cliff this is an experience that Selinunte provides uniquely and that the more famous sites of the island cannot match.
Marinella has several restaurants serving fresh fish and the local western Sicilian specialities (raw fish carpaccio, pasta with sea urchin, grilled swordfish) at prices considerably lower than the tourist infrastructure of Palermo or Taormina. It makes an excellent lunch stop between the Cave di Cusa and the park, or a quiet overnight base for those positioning Selinunte as a dedicated day rather than a stop on a circuit.
How to visit route, shuttle and timing
The main visitor entrance is the Eastern Entrance near the Eastern Hill temples the larger of the two entrances, with the ticket office, café, restrooms and parking. This is where to start a visit, beginning with Temple E and working through Temples F and G before taking the shuttle or walking to the Acropolis.
The shuttle connecting the Eastern Hill to the Acropolis costs €8 (short route) or €12 (longer route) and is worth taking at least in one direction the 1.5-kilometre walk across the valley is pleasant in good weather but tiring in summer heat after several hours of walking on the Eastern Hill. The shuttle allows you to arrive at the Acropolis fresh for the second half of the visit.
The optimal timing is arrival at opening (9am) before the tour buses arrive around 10 to 10.30am. An early morning visit to Temple E in the golden light, with the Mediterranean below and the site almost empty, is significantly more rewarding than the same visit at midday in full summer heat and crowds. Allow 3 to 4 hours for a thorough visit covering both the Eastern Hill and the Acropolis; add 45 minutes for the Cave di Cusa if visiting on the same day.
There is very little shade anywhere in the park. Sun protection, a hat, water and comfortable shoes for uneven terrain are not optional equipment in summer.
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Getting to Selinunte
A car is strongly recommended for visiting Selinunte. The site is in the rural southwestern interior of Sicily, poorly served by public transport, and most visitors combine it with other western Sicilian destinations (Segesta, Marsala, the Valley of the Temples) that are only practical with a car.
By car from Palermo: take the A29 motorway toward Mazara del Vallo, exit at Castelvetrano and follow the SP64 south to Marinella di Selinunte (approximately 1 hour 30 minutes, 130 km). From Trapani, approximately 1 hour via the A29 (75 km). From Agrigento, approximately 1 hour via the SS115 (80 km). From the Valley of the Temples, approximately 50 minutes.
By public transport, the journey requires a bus from Palermo or Trapani to Castelvetrano followed by a second bus (Salemi line) to Selinunte possible but time-consuming and subject to limited weekend schedules.
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Selinunte is most rewarding as part of a western Sicily road trip. Compare rental car prices at Palermo and Trapani airports and book in advance always select full coverage (zero excess).
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What to combine with Selinunte
Valley of the Temples, Agrigento (50 minutes east) the obvious pairing: two of the greatest Greek archaeological sites in the western Mediterranean in a single day. Selinunte in the morning, Valley of the Temples in the afternoon, or vice versa. A full day is needed for both at adequate pace. Read our complete Valley of the Temples guide.
Segesta (45 minutes north) the unfinished Elymian temple and hilltop theatre, the city that fought Selinunte for most of its history, sitting on a lonely hill with views that make it one of the most atmospheric ancient sites in Sicily. Pairing Segesta with Selinunte gives a direct comparison between two rival ancient cultures at a single day’s driving distance. Read our complete Segesta guide.
Marsala (1 hour north) the Phoenician-Roman city of Lilybaeum, now Sicily’s finest wine town, provides a civilisational contrast to the Greek temples: the Museo Archeologico Baglio Anselmi contains the only surviving ancient warship in the world (a Carthaginian liburna from the First Punic War, recovered from the sea near Lilybaeum in 1971). A morning at Selinunte followed by afternoon wine tasting in Marsala is one of the most rewarding single-day circuits in western Sicily. Read our complete Marsala guide.
Sciacca (30 minutes southeast) a working fishing port and spa town with thermal springs, a beautiful baroque historic centre and excellent seafood restaurants. A natural overnight base for those spending more than a single day in the Selinunte area. Read our complete Scala dei Turchi guide for the extraordinary white rock formation nearby.
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Practical information
Tickets and opening hours
Entry to the Selinunte Archaeological Park costs €14 for adults (2025). The shuttle between the Eastern Hill and the Acropolis costs €8 (short route) or €12 (longer route) and is purchased at the ticket office. Opening hours run from 9am to 8pm between May and September; hours reduce in the cooler months always verify on the official site before visiting as hours change seasonally. The ticket office closes one hour before the park closes.
The Palermo Archaeological Museum and the metopes
The finest sculptural material from Selinunte the carved metopes from the temple friezes, depicting Perseus and Medusa, the Rape of Europa and other mythological scenes is not at the site but at the Museo Archeologico Regionale Antonio Salinas in Palermo. If you have a particular interest in the sculptural programme of the temples, a visit to the Palermo museum before Selinunte provides essential context. Read our complete Palermo guide for more on the city’s museums.
Selinunte vs Valley of the Temples which is better?
They offer different experiences and both merit visiting. The Valley of the Temples has more intact standing temples and a stronger museum; Selinunte is larger, more immersive and less crowded, with the specific addition of Temple G’s overwhelming scale and the Cave di Cusa. Most visitors to western Sicily who have two days for archaeology should see both; those with one day should choose based on whether they prefer a more polished site (Valley of the Temples) or a more open-ended and physically dramatic one (Selinunte).
Frequently asked questions about Selinunte
Is Selinunte worth visiting?
Yes, strongly. Selinunte is one of the most impressive archaeological sites in Europe and less visited than it deserves. The scale of the park, the drama of Temple G’s ruins, the unique addition of the Cave di Cusa and the swimming below Temple E at Marinella make it one of the most complete archaeological experiences in Sicily. Those with an interest in ancient history who skip Selinunte in favour of only the Valley of the Temples are missing the larger and more immersive site.
Why are the Selinunte temples named with letters?
Because the original dedicatory names of the temples were lost and remain disputed. The letters (E, F, G, A, B, C, D) were assigned by 19th-century archaeologists as neutral identifiers pending definitive attribution which has never been established. Most scholars now favour Temple E as a dedication to Hera, but even this is not universally accepted.
How long does it take to visit Selinunte?
A minimum of 3 hours for the Eastern Hill and the Acropolis at a reasonable pace. 4 to 5 hours is more comfortable, particularly in cooler weather when the full exploration of both areas is physically manageable. Add 45 minutes for the Cave di Cusa if visiting the quarries on the same day.
What are the Cave di Cusa?
The Cave di Cusa are the limestone quarries 11 kilometres from Selinunte where the blocks for all the temples were extracted. They are remarkable for the columns and drums that remain half-quarried in the rock abandoned at the exact moment of the Carthaginian attack in 409 BC and never recovered. They are one of the finest documents of ancient construction technique anywhere in the Mediterranean and are free to visit.
Can you visit Selinunte without a car?
Technically yes, but it is difficult. The journey from Palermo or Trapani by public transport requires at least two bus connections and is subject to limited Sunday and holiday services. A rental car is strongly recommended. If you do not have a car, guided day tours from Palermo and Trapani that include transport are the most practical alternative.
The largest park, the least visited
Selinunte is the paradox of Sicilian tourism: the largest archaeological park in Europe, one of the finest Greek sites in the world, a site with unique additions (the Cave di Cusa, the beach below the temples) that no comparable site offers and yet visited by a fraction of the tourists who queue for the Valley of the Temples. That ratio will likely change as the site becomes better known to international visitors. In the meantime, arriving early at the Eastern Entrance and having Temple E to yourself in the morning light above the Mediterranean is one of the most particular pleasures that Sicily offers to those who know to come here.
For the full western Sicily circuit, read our guides to Segesta, the Valley of the Temples, Marsala and our complete Sicily road trip guide.
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