Segesta

In a green deserted landscape rise the ruins of the ancient city of Segesta, among the most fascinating and evocative of the island. Of the settlement, only a Doric temple and a theater have been preserved in a very scenic position , evidence of a city that has its roots in the 12th century BC and was a center of the Elymians, a mixed population of assassins and foreigners.

Ancient Segesta was eventually Hellenized and spent much of its last period engaged in border disputes with Selinunte . The temple dates back to the period of the prosperous alliance with Athens, but was never completed. Today two extraordinary monuments survive of the ancient Greek city: the theater, on the top of the mountain with a view that sweeps up to Castellammare del Golfo and the unfinished Doric temple dating back to around 430 BC.