.Our expert-led private tour starts in Solunto, a colony established by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC on the top of Mount Catalfano, not far from Bagheria. The current visible city dates back to the 4th century BC, after the destruction by Syracuse of the Phoenician and Punic settlement. The site has a Hippodamian urban layout, with a large paved street intersected by secondary roads delimiting the building lots. Along the main street, you can admire the houses of the ancient city and the luxurious peristyle dwellings, such as Leda’s House, so named because of the representation of Leda and the swan on a triclinium wall, and famous for its opus signinum, mosaic floors, and for the wall paintings with Pompeian style panels. At the end of the plateia, we will arrive in the agora, surrounded by a monumental portico, and the main public buildings of the city, a large cistern, the theater, the odeon and sanctuaries. The interesting archaeological museum exhibits materials dating from the oldest Phoenician to the Hellenistic and Roman ages.
This day guided tour continues in the afternoon at the Himera archaeological park, where it will be possible to follow the development of an ancient urban structure of the 6th century BC, which is still visible today on the ground. We’ll also absorb important aspects of the life of a Greek city that was an outpost of Greek culture in western Sicily, very close to the Punic area. The site was also the background of the famous Battle of Imera (480 BC), which saw the Carthaginians defeated by the allied armies of Syracuse and Akragas. The records of this meaningful historical moment are the Doric Temple of Victory and incredible collective tombs of soldiers and their horses.
