Not in very good shape for being
"built" in 1957!
Our day started with the long bus ride from Palermo (on the Northern coast of Sicily) to Selinunte on the South shoreline. This was an ancient town, started during the 7th century BC which tried to survive by delicately balancing neutrality between Greece and Carthage. This did it no good as Hannibal destroyed it in 409 BC anyway. But first the people agreed to give him a large cash sum if he would spare the temples and free the 5000 prisoners he had captured. He agreed, took the money, and wiped out the place anyway. Of 25,000 people, he killed 16000 right away and enslaved 7000 others. (Get it in writing!)
Undaunted, the townspeople rebuilt only to have the place razed again by Carthage during the second Punic war in 250BC. (Yes, it's getting old!) This time it stayed down and the site has been pretty well abandoned until this century when the archeologists and tourists got interested. (At least the archeologists were--we saw a few of them puttering around the sites making blueprints.) Some of the more delicate carvings are in museums in Palermo; what we got to see were pretty much piles of stones complements of Carthaginians and earthquakes.
The ruins lie in three main groups. In this century, archeologists have re-erected some of them. In most cases, we don't know to which god(desses) the temples were dedicated so they have names like A, B, C (through at least G -- we have pretty much a temple farm here).
Here's a view of temple C, the oldest temple in Selinunte. Some of its 17 columns on the long side were re-erected in 1925.
Our guide did a good job of explaining Greek building techniques and how the stones were essentially rolled from the quarries (after having been first carved roughly to size) to the temple site. The stone was typically bolted between two large wheels so that it was temporarily the axis.
Here's a picture of Hera's temple, temple C, which was partially re-erected in 1957.
After lunch on the seashore, we ventured to the high ground of Selinunte's great rival, Segesta. Please join us by clicking here.
Need to refresh you background on Greek and Roman architecture? This site has good explanations but no pictures: click here!http://www.teleport.com/~arden/blake.htm or for a good drawing, try http://www.chch.school.nz/mbc/columns.htm
Where do you want to go today? Here's a few choices:
Pietrina and Dick's Home Page |
|
